Hopeful path (Rewite)
by Proxy4818
Summary: A seemingly ordinary Natural by the name of Eric Raglan is living on the Neutral colony of Heliopolis believing that the war will never reach him or his friends. but that belief is soon thrown out the window when Zeaft launches an attack to steal five mobile suits made by the Earth forces and Eric soon finds himself pilots a sixth one that neither side was ever aware of
1. Chapter 1

**Ok this kind of took a lot longer than I had intended to get out mainly because of personal stuff going in my life, lack of motivation and the fact that I deleted the chapter to start over from the beginning because I didn't like the first version. But Anyway, without further ado here's the rewritten version of Hopeful path.**

 **Also, while a lot of the story is going to follow cannon I am** **NOT** **going to be following every little scene word for word and detail for detail, I can't literally remember every single word every character said throughout every single episode plus it adds some form of originality so keep that in mind.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam seed.**

* * *

On a stage in front of numerous spectators a teen girl with clear blue eyes and long flowing pink hair wearing a white shirt with the sleeves separated at the shoulders and a long purple skirt that concealed her legs along with a golden triple laired hear pin sang an elegant song that many of whom who were listening found beautiful and heartfelt at the same time.

"In this quiet night. I'm waiting for you, forgetting the past and dreaming of you."

Many of the listeners smiled in adoration of the individual singing.

"Time passes by and memories fade, but time can't erase the love that we made."

The singer took in the expressions of her audience and was pleased to see they were enjoying the show.

"And the stars in the sky, that I wish upon can't bring you back to my side, though you're not here with me, I dream of the day we'll meet again"

"Hold me close, so deep in your heart."

"I will find you, no matter where I have to go, and dream of me, for I will be there."

Much of the audience cheered on in admiration for the singer and the talent she had for her career.

"Follow the stars, that lead into the quiet night."

From there the singer began the second verse of her song.

XXXXX

Viewing the video, a teen boy with tan skin which was the result a mixed lineage (Caucasian and Black) with short cut black hair practically to his scalp and eyes that were such a dark shade of brown that one could only see his pupils up close, in terms of attire he donned a yellow short sleeved shirt underneath a light gray hoodie that was zipped halfway up along with blue jeans and white shoes watched on simply savoring the feeling of serenity it brought him since it often helped him forget less painful memories of the times before he was adopted by his current family and came to live on the space colony of Heliopolis or whenever he was upset about anything making it something of an occasional pass time

The teen in question went by the name Eric Raglan and the reason for his current actions now were simply to put himself at ease or at least that was what he was aiming to achieve but a sense of irrational unease still lingered in the far back reaches of his mind even with the music video playing.

The reason the said unease could be thought of as irrational was because it was derived from a dream he had prior to waking up that very morning in which the colony was invaded but a military force known as Zaft invaded the colony however such a scenario was impossible. The reason being was that in spite of a war currently going between Zaft and another force known as the Earth Alliance the Colony Eric was currently residing was part of a neutral nation besides as far as Eric was personally concerned if there was anyone that'd invade the colony it'd be the Earth Alliance considering they were simply only fighting to force Zaft and its homeland into submission fore that sake of flaunting a sense of self supremacy and they were also the ones who instigated the entire ordeal via nuking an agricultural Plant colony known as Junious Seven in an event that was known as the bloody valentine.

The reason for the war that was being waged was because humanity had been split into two factions known as Naturals and Coordinators due to the actions of a famous man known as Gorge Glenn which gave birth to the latter of the faction.

Coordinator were created via genetic modification in the embryotic stage which resulted in them having faster reflexes, immunity to diseases, and the ability to process information much faster to state a few things, in simply terms Coordinators were capable of much higher feats much more easily than any Natural. Unfortunately, this resulted in Naturals developing feelings of jealousy and animosity towards Coordinators and taking it to the point of unjustly attacking, persecuting, discriminating against, and murdering them.

Eventually Coordinators decided to simply migrate into space and reside in special space colonies known as the Plants in hopes of simply living out their lives in peace however the Earth Alliance decided to forbid those living in the Plants from making their own food. Of course, this was simply for the sake of maintaining supremacy over Coordinators so the Earth Alliance could continually mistreat and exploit them as they pleased so it wasn't surprising when the Plant's severed ties with the Earth Alliance so they could finally live out their lives in peace without having to deal with constant injustices at the hands of those living on the Earth.

Unfortunately, The Earth Alliance and those who sympathized with them didn't take well to this and the Earth Alliance decided to put on a show of force in hopes of intimidating the Coordinators back into submission even going as far as to commit the bloody valentine act. Much to their dismay however the Plants didn't submit and instead created devices known as N Jammers and utilized them to put a stop to any and all nuclear devices in Space and Earth alike.

Since then the Earth Alliance had been waging an all-out war initially believing they could easily force the Plants back under their thumb only to have that arrogant notion shattered when the Plants' military force known as Zaft brought superior weaponry to the field known as Mobile suits which had vastly superior performance to any mobile armor. As a result, the Earth Alliance only could win when their forces at least outnumbered the enemy five to one if not more and as such the war between the Earth Alliance and Zaft had dragged on for the last eleven months with no end in sight.

While many other Nations were dragged into the war mostly because the Earth Alliance harbored an arrogant belief that everyone on earth owed them their loyalty, the nation that Heliopolis however was a part of was an officially recognized neutral territory known as Orb more or less making it a sanctuary from the war now going on.

Personally, Eric was more for Zaft winning far more than the Earth Alliance since while Zaft wasn't completely exempt of any crimes since the war started their cause was simply defending their homeland which was something no one from the Earth Alliance could honestly say about themselves.

Regardless however there was still some part of the teens mind telling him that wasn't your typical dream that what he saw in his sleep might very well come into fruition however ridiculous it may have seemed.

'There's no way Zaft would attack this colony. There's no reason for them to come here.' He told himself in his mind before being snapped out of his thoughts by another person.

"Hey Eric is this what you're up to? I probably should've figured as much considering how much of a fanboy you are for the Plants' number one idol." A voice said causing Eric to see a boy at least two years younger than himself with short spiky brown hair and hazel eyes wearing a simply dark blue short sleeved shirt and brown pants along with brown shoes.

Closing his PC and placing it in a zip up bag for the said PC Eric replied.

"Sorry Callahan, I'm just feeling under the weather today."

"Makes sense considering you're listening to Lacus Clyne's music."

"Anything going on with you?"

Callahan just scratched the back of head nonchalantly "Not really I was heading over to our school to see how Kira was holding up since the professor is so keen on taking advantage of his talents."

"Seriously? I know Kira's a Coordinator but the professor should seriously learn to give him a break."

"Yeah but when it comes to Kira he can be too nice for his own good."

"Yeah I probably should've known. Anyway, I'm pretty much free today so I mine come with you as well see what the others are up to."

"Good, it'll be good for you not to be constantly hanging by your lonesome." Callahan said as the two headed off to where Kira and their other friends were.

"By the way I been wanting to ask you since you're such a fan of her music have you ever wanted to meet Lacus Clyne?"

Eric rolled his eyes. "As nice as that sounds not really."

"Why not? The girl's pretty much admired by nearly anyone and everyone who isn't hung up on being jealous of Coordinators and most of her fans would kill for the chance to see her in person hell I can only imagine how many would dream of having her for girlfriend what with how good looking she is. Can you tell you don't find that idea appealing?"

"I can tell you I don't find it the least bit realistic so I'm not really getting my hopes up."

"Aw come on nothing will definitely happen with that attitude."

'That's easy to say when you ignore real life factors.' Eric thought while inwardly sighing.

However, captivating the scenario Callahan had painted seemed the sad reality was that it'd never happen for more than one reason. For starters the pop Idol known as Lacus Clyne resided in the Plants which was the homeland of Coordinators which wasn't a place any Natural had setting foot for any reason unless they were a parent of a first generation Coordinator which hardly applied to Eric which also brought up another point where the war was between Naturals and Coordinators simply put for the largest part the two were sworn enemies as of now, granted that rule didn't apply to Heliopolis since it was a part of the neutral nation of Orb which was known to accept anyone regardless of their genetic background under the ideology that both sides could coexist side by side in peace but the Plants were not a part of Orb and as such that coexistence didn't really apply there, while the presence of Natural minorities may have been tolerated there that was only for the sake of the first generation Coordinators they were the parents of them rather than any form of friendship or trust and like with other Natural's were viewed as inferior vermin by much of the Plant's population so it was very much possible that Lacus Clyne also despised Naturals in general, it wouldn't be hard to imagine considering the overall history between the two faction as well as the bloody valentine and if that was indeed the case Eric would definitely be on her hate list since he was a Natural.

All that wasn't even taking into account Lacus' popularity, her status as the Plants' number one Idol as well as the fact she was one of the most beautiful girls in the entirety of Cosmic Era meant she could have nearly anyone she wanted as a lover including people who were far better looking and had much more out standish traits than Eric, in terms of overall looks the teen more or less looked like your average everyday African male even if his skin tone was couple shades lighter due to his mixed heritage and in terms of personality he was pretty much average if not a bit of a loner some of the time, heck the only about him that probably stood out was his disdain for the Earth Alliance, simply put the social difference between him of Lacus was like that of a peasant boy and a royal princess.

Overall to say the very idea of Eric meeting let alone being in a relationship with Lacus Clyne was something that likely never happen was something of an understatement.

XXXX

"Hurry make the finale completions to the machine OS, we may very well need to really on its power to fight our way out of here when the attack on the colony begins." A man in his sixties with gray hair tied in a short braid and wore a white lab coat over a black shirt with tan pants by the name of Shirou Fujimoto said as he stood on a catwalk overlooking a Mobile suit that was unlike any Zaft had at their disposal.

Upon hearing his order one of his employees spoke up. "But sir the people headed to the colony are Zaft, if anything they're more than likely here for the Earth forces new mobile weapons not ours."

"You're not wrong in that regard. The Collaborations between the Earth forces and Orb were bound to gain Zaft's attention however those who would impede what we're intending to do here are likely hiding amongst them so they can act more covertly."

As unlikely as Shirou's claim may have sounded the head professor new better then to underestimate the intellect of the enemies he wished to oppose, they may not have had any real evidence of what Shirou had been up to on Heliopolis but they'd surely be aware that any project he worked on would have to be here in order to stay under the radar of both official sides of the war, simply put Shirou was utilizing the strategy of hiding in plain sight in under to elude any potential attention for the Earth Alliance or Zaft but as mentioned before this was something his group's personal advisory would definitely anticipate and act upon.

Shirou would be damned if he allowed them to have their way, While the mobile suit had had designed based off of the G weapons made of the Earth Alliance's and Orb's collaboration the Professor planned much further ahead. While the weapon he made was indeed powerful it was only the prototype of the weapon he truly intended to shift the world in the direction it should really be taking before humanity needlessly destroyed itself for idiotic reasons.

"You mean to say they'll most likely be disguising themselves as Zaft forces so they can infiltrate Heliopolis and search for us without tipping either side of their pretense or very existence." A young lady in her mid-twenties with shoulder length blond hair with curved bangs that framed the sides of her face and wore a white lab coat over a teal buttoned up shirt with grey pants and black boots by the name of Federica said.

"Yes, so I'd like to have the assigned pilot ready to sortie at a moment's notice."

"I'll let him know." Federica replied. 'Marcus please don't get hurt."

XXXXXX

Outside the colony three Zaft ships known as the Vasilios, Gamow, and Requiem were steadily approaching the Colony's docks ignoring repeating warnings from its personal.

"Attention Zaft vessels the colony you are approaching is part of neutral territory, you are hereby ordered to halt your approach and vacate this area. I repeat you are hereby ordered to halt your approach and vacate the area at once."

On onboard the Gamow the soldiers on onboard simply brushed the warning aside. "Are these dumbasses for real? If they seriously think they're still neutral after helping the Earth Alliance build mobile suits they pretty fucking deluded." Said a Zaft red pilot with near shoulder length silver hair announced.

"Can't argue with that. With the type of collaboration, we should just consider Orb in its entirety are enemies." Another Zaft red pilot with a dark skin tone and blond hair said.

"But what about the Civilians? If we attacked the nation itself they'd be caught up in it!" A third Zaft red with green hair exclaimed in worry.

"The bigger part of their population are Naturals so it shouldn't really matter to us." The Silvered haired Zaft red pilot said.

It was then a pilot with near shoulder length dark blue and green eyes, like the green haired pilot he didn't harbor any real desire to attack the colony since it held a high number of civilians many of which would unavoidably die during the course of the operation after it started but by the end of the day…..

"Regardless of the population's genetic ratio let's just focus on completing the mission as quickly as possible. With minimal damage to the colony or the residents."

The silver haired pilot rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Sheesh Athrun could you and Nicole be anymore cowardly? Naturals are nothing but a lesser race."

XXXXX

"You're absolutely clear on your team's objective, aren't you?" A blond commander wearing a mask asked a CGUE pilot who had already launched from their designated ship.

"Yes sir, were the we're scout other parts of the Colony mopping up any enemies we find while Miguel's squad covers the Zaft reds who are to pilot the mobile suits we came here for."

"Good I'll leave you to it then." The masked Commander said before cutting the link between the Gamow and CGUE pilot's machine.

As the corner screen in the CGUE's cockpit turned black the pilot smirked before contacting the ship he was initially assigned to which caused the screen to turn on again this time displaying a man with combed back blond hair wearing a stoic demeanor wearing a black Zaft captains uniform.

"I assume you've contacted us to give us a status report, Bernard?" The blond captain inquired.

"Pretty much the Rau La Cruset guy felt the need to remind that we gotta keep tabs on all the other areas of the colony aside from where the Earth Alliance's new soon to be stolen toys are."

"In that case you shouldn't have too much of a difficult time performing your true mission while fooling those who are actually loyal to the Plants."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Bernard announced with a cocky smirk on his face.

"Just make sure you don't let your confidence lead you to make idiotic decisions during the course of the mission the last thing we need is our cover being blown."

"Relax Rooks, the objective we've been given by the Commander gives me and my guys a lot of free reign the scout throughout Heliopolis' interior."

"Just keep in mind the Requiems' crew cannot afford to have its cover blown here or we may very well end up having to defend ourselves from all sides which would cause our mission here to fail."

"I know I'll be sure Fujimoto's new weapon never makes its debut." Bernard said before cutting the link. Onboard the bridge of the Salvation Rook sighed in slight annoyance.

'That man's overconfidence had best not put us in a tight spot.' The reason for the captain's alert behavior was because while the Requiem and its crew appeared to be part of Zaft's military the real truth was that not a single person aboard the ship actually held even the smallest semblance of loyalty to the military created to protect the Plants in fact not everyone on the ship was actually a Coordinator but even those who were didn't believe in anything Zaft stood for.

"Let's make sure we do our part." Rooks announced to those on the bridge at their designated stations before he continued. "To correct the flaws of the Cosmic Era."

XXXXX

At the docks of Heliopolis, a fair number of GINNs began entering the Colony and flying to various parts of the city.

Many residents watched in shock before becoming anxious with fear.

"Why are there mobile suits inside the colony!?"

"Has Zaft decided to attack us?"

"But we're a Neutral territory that's apart of Orb, Zaft shouldn't have any reason to come here!"

Inside a facility charged with surveillance of the outside of the Colony a frustrated manager watched the events playing out on a screen with displayed a view of much of the Colony's interior.

"Hasn't anyone told Zaft to leave this area?!"

"We have sir but they've simply ignored all our messages."

The manager's eyes widened upon hearing this, if Zaft forces were simply ignoring all request to vacate the area on top of having sent multiple mobile suits into Heliopolis that made their intentions all too clear.

"Sound the alarm now!"

XXXXX

"Kira, you know you really gotta learn to decline the professors request every once in a while, you know that don't you." Eric said addressing a brunette boy around his age with purple eyes wearing a black shirt and teal pants.

"Please don't remind me. I'm not even done with the stuff he dumped on me yesterday." Kira replied before groaning.

"Well if you're tired of all the work our teacher's how about we talk about you're feeling for you know who." Another brunette boy by the name of Tolle Koenig said before coming up behind Kira and wrapping arm around his neck playfully.

"To-Tolle not here." Kira said.

"Um what's everyone talking about?" Another boy who was known as Sai Argyle inquired causing Kira to become visibly nervous.

"Oh, come you know." Tolle jaded.

As everyone watched on either laughing at the scene before them or waited in anticipation for Kira's response Eric simply sighed. 'Should have figured Tolle would bring this up.'

The subject or to be more precise the person he was referring as "You know who." Was actually a girl who Kira harbored romantic feelings for a girl by the name of Flay Alster though there was an obvious problem in the form of her being arranged to be wed to Sai Argyle though Tolle still insisted there was hope for him since Flay and Sai weren't yet married.

While many found the idea of Kira having a crush on someone cute or appealing Eric simply pitied Kira. While Flay was easy on the eyes earning Sai much envy from more than a few boys at their school Eric had heard the girl migrated from the Atlantic Federation which was the birth place of an extremist group known as Blue Cosmos who were obsessed with wiping out all Coordinators as well as where the group had nearly all of the general population (if not all of it) eating out of the palm of their hand. On top of that her father was a major vice foreign minister of the Atlantic Federation who had expressed blatant support for Blue Cosmos' ideals. Both facts combined with the how Flay from the times Eric had seen her often had her face contorted in disgust whenever she saw anyone demonstrating the abilities of a Coordinator made it fairly obvious she was a stereotypical Blue Cosmos sympathizer who'd probably become full-fledged supporter if she were ever given any position of power and since Kira himself was Coordinator Eric couldn't help pitying him for having feelings for one of the last people he should be involved with in any shape or form.

Flay might have looked like an appealing girl on the surface but the underlying reality was that she's was a pathetic excuse of a human being. Still who Kira decided was his type wasn't really any of Eric's business and as such he didn't plan on involving himself in any way. All he'd do was hope Kira was capable of grasping the truth of things before he possibly got needlessly hurt.

Kira's love life aside Eric found himself remembering earlier when he and Callahan had first met up with the others and Kira was watching a news report showing an attack on Taiwan by Zaft. Another friend of his and Callahan's friends who went by the name Mirriallia Haw expressed some worry since the attack didn't take place very from Orb's homeland before Tolle who was actually her boyfriend reassured her that Orb was a neutral territory and therefore it would never turn into a battlefield.

Personally, while Eric was well aware of Orb's neutrality a part of his mind remembered the dream he had that morning before repeating the phrase from earlier in his mind. 'There's no way Zaft would attack this colony. There's no reason for them to come here.'

"There's absolutely no reason from them to come here." Eric muttered to himself before he felt his stomach turn cold and eyes widen to their limit upon hearing an alarm go off throughout the entire colony. Looking out a window the teen soon witnessed a GINN type mobile land atop on overpassing freeway off in the distance long enough to use its machine gun to destroy a small number of armored vehicles that tried to intercept it.

"This can't seriously be happening, there's no way this can be real." Eric muttered to himself in denial even the proof of what was transpiring was right in front of him. The dream he had that morning, the dream he was trying to forget was coming true.

"Hey what's going on? Is Zaft seriously attacking us?" Tolle asked.

"But we're a neutral Colony." Another boy known as Kuzzy Buskirk said.

"Let's just get to the shelters!" Callahan exclaimed before running out of the room with everyone following behind him.

XXXXX

"Spotted the three of the targets." Announced a Zaft red who smirked behind the visor of their helmet before continuing.

"Sheesh I knew Naturals were dumb fucks but this is just painful to watch we haven't even rattled their cage that much."

Another voice replied over the radio.

"What do you expect Yzak? They've always been far beneath us in literally every sense."

"I know it just I thought with how much denial the show in the face of that fact they'd actually be able to think at least one move ahead."

"Well from the looks of things even that was too high of an expectation for them." Another Zaft red aside from the one now identified as Yzak said.

"Pretty much anyway let's hurry up and secure these three suits, Athrun and Rusty have already went on ahead to secure the other two." Yzak said whilst grinning almost predatorily. 'I'm gonna enjoy seeing the reaction these inferior earthborn pieces of trash have when the find out their new weapons will soon be ours.'

XXXXX

Throughout the Morgenroete facility people were scrambling to find any shelter they were able to get to in order to obtain any safety from the battle going on outside the building and quickly spreading to all areas of the colony.

"Why is this happening? We're not supposed to be involved in this war!" Kuzzy exclaimed.

"Tell that to the mobile suits blasting everything to hell." Tolle retorted.

"Are we all gonna die?!" Mirriallia asked in fear.

"We just got to get to the shelters and wait until this is over." Sai replied trying to reassure her though even he wasn't so sure if that'd really be the case with the sheer amount of destruction Zaft forces were reaping though that didn't stop Tolle from trying to add the sense of reassurance

"Yeah it's just like Sai said we'll be safe at the shelters."

"All the more reason for us to hurry up." Callahan announced.

While everyone was engrossed in debating why the war had spread to Heliopolis of all places Eric who had been silent the entire time stared out a window to the side of the corridor as he followed along with the others watching the fight unfolding just outside.

So far, the only real resistance Zaft seemed be actually be met with was armored vehicles belonging to morgenroete but any fight they put up could barely be thought of as mediocre and that was stretching it in terms of trying to compliment them considering the most they'd accomplish was stalling a GINN for a couple of moments before being met with destructive retaliation.

However as sudden as the fighting started thing suddenly took a different turn when Eric suddenly spotted a small number of mobile armors belonging to the Earth Alliance enter to colony including one that was orange had four gun barrels the top, bottom and both sides of its back with a slender front body.

Seeing this Eric's eyes narrowed in anger. 'So that's why Zaft's attacking this colony, I should have figured as much.'

Zaft was attacking the colony because of the Earth Alliance forces here. Still that raised the question of what the Earth Alliance was doing there. If they wanted to use the colony has a supply or base they would have supply invaded Heliopolis themselves and annexed the colony, they had a pretty solid history of annexing neutral territories that wanted nothing to do with the war. In which case that had to mean the Earth Alliance had to have been doing something here that compelled Zaft to act. The question was what that something was. Regardless if the answer the fat still remained that thanks to it the colony has now under attack.

'Leave to the Earth Alliance to get us dragged into this mess.'

"Hey where are you going?!" A voice rang out grabbing the teen's attention and causing him to turn to the source in time to find Kira chasing a figure who had most of their body covered in a long coat and wore a hat. Judging from their attire it was a safe bet to say they wore trying to hide who they wore and now that Eric thought about it he recalled them hanging around the room him and his friends were previously in before the attack started before slipping away almost like they wore trying to avoid being seen.

Back then Eric didn't bother to make much note of their presence simply choosing to dismiss it as nothing of any real importance at the time but now seeing this person (at least to his knowledge) using the attack by Zaft and the panic it had caused to slip away from everyone Eric became far more curious as to what they wore trying to do which compelled them to head in a direction where there were no shelters in fact last Eric checked the direction they took lead to a Morgenroete facility that was closed to the general public.

It was than that Kira managed to catch up to the figure and grab ahold of their writ much to their annoyance. "Let go of me you jerk!"

The figure tried to wrest the arm from Kira's grasp but weren't meant with any real success due to Kira being a Coordinator.

"Kira where in the world are you going?" Eric asked as he caught up to both of them before the building shook violently from what was likely a nearby explosion causing all three of the corridors current occupants to fall over as well as the unknown figure's hat to fall off revealing them to be a teen girl with near shoulder length blond hair which took Kira by surprise.

"You're a girl?"

The teen female glared at the brunette. "Yeah what were you expecting."

"I think the better question is why did you try to come this way by yourself." Eric retorted gaining the girl's attention.

"What's it to you?"

"Considering the nearest shelters along this route are at least twice a far as the ones everyone else is heading towards. I'm guessing it might have something to due with what's going on."

"So, what? Where I go isn't any of your or this asshole's business."

"Considering an attack id taking place outside this place that everyone can easily get caught up in I'd have to disagree."

Before the blond stranger could retort the building rumbled throwing everyone off their feet before the path they had previously used caved in essentially cutting them off from the others which Kira quickly took note of.

"It likes we can't go back anymore."

The stranger growled in annoyance.

"You've got to be kidding me." She then turned to Eric and Kira.

"Listen you both better follow me if you want get out of this alive." The blonde figure announced before running off without giving either of the teens a chance to reply.

"Hey wait up." Kira called out giving chase.

'Dammit why did the war have to come here?' Eric thought as he followed the other two teens for the next few minutes asking himself if Callahan had made it safely to a shelter or if Abram had managed to get any safe at all when all of this had started.

It didn't take long before the three teens came to the end of a corridor which led to second floor of a large open room where they were greeted with a site the caused them to stop and do a double take.

Looking over the railing of the three teens eyed two unusual mobile suits that didn't like anything like a GINN or any type of Zaft mobile suit that any of them knew about. Both machines looked similar and yet sporadically different in terms of appearance.

Both a head that looked much more humanoid in terms of appeared compared to GINN both had to eyes sensors though one had a pair of emerald green and a rather plain looking face plate along with a simple V fin atop it's forehead extending diagonally to the left and right just beneath a green jewel and a long protrusion that was likely some kind of sensor whilst the other machine had amber yellow eyes and a somewhat more elaborate design to its face sporting two horizontal gaps to itself face plate that likely acted as some kind of outward speaker wall its V fin had two extra inner fins sticking straight upwards. Atop its forehead was a yellow jewel.

"I knew it!" The Blonde girl exclaimed before felling to her knees.

"The Earth forces' new mobile weapons. Father I know you betrayed us all!"

Eric's eyes narrowed. 'So, my hunch was right. It's the Earth Alliance that brought Zaft here!' before Eric's training of thought could go any farther a group of Zaft gunman emerged from a door on the second floor on the opposite he and the other two teens were on initially firing at the Earth officers attempting to defend the mobile suits in question.

Among them was one man who had a rather sadistic look in his eyes who after a few moments turned his gaze to the three teens before taking aim at them.

Luckily both Eric and Kira noticed in time for the former to dive to the left and the latter to grab the blond girl and dive to the right out off the gunman's line of fire. Just as this was happening a door in the corner of the room in the direction Eric had dived towards had opened before a man with ruffled black hair who was wearing a brown mechanic suits came through the door pointing a rifle at the gun the gunman at the other side of the second before firing forcing them to move out of the of the bullets.

During this time Eric gazed over at Kira and Blond girl before the former met his gaze. "Come on It's not safe here."

Eric was about to follow after Kira as he the blonde stranger but was stopped by a spray of bullets hit the wall in front of him causing him to fall backwards.

Almost immediately after a hand wrapped around his arm pulling him back to his feet and towards the door the black-haired rifleman came out previously, after regaining his bearing Eric soon found out it was the black hair individual who had grabbed ahold of him.

"I know you don't know me but you'd best come with me if you want to live."

"Wait. Who are you?"

"Marcus Goldman but just call me by my first name, I'm not much for formalities."

"Okay Marcus where in the world are you taking me?"

"Next door to a facility you'd normally never be allowed to enter in order to save your life."

"But I'm just a complete stranger."

"So, what you're still a human being with your own thoughts and feelings as well as a life to live." Marcus reply before he yanked Eric behind him whilst aiming his rifle down the direction they came from. After a few short moments had passed one of the gunmen tried to came through the entrance only for Marcus shoot them in the heart.

"Come on they'll soon follow us into the place. We need to get further inside." Marcus announced leading the further down the corridor.

The sound of static was suddenly heard coming from Marcus' hip drawing Eric attention to what turned out to be a radio which Marcus quickly drew from his hip before a feminine voice emanated from it.

"Marcus, where are you?!"

"At the entrance connecting to the morgenroete facility."

"What? Why?!" The person on the other end exclaimed their voice laced with worry.

"I figured I could stall the impersonators within Zaft's ranks and give our guys the time the needed to ready a defensive line to hold off any intruders.

Eric's eyes widened considerably. 'Impersonators? What does he mean?'

"Marcus! You can't go off doing anything reckless you're the pilot for the Hope."

"I know but there's no point in piloting that machine or even its creation if I can't save anyone aside from myself. Also, I was forced to bring a civilian with me."

"How could something like that possibly have…forget it, just bring them with you I'll have one of my coworker take them off your hands while you take the Hope and get it off this colony. Father's already having the crew board the Alabama."

"Alright I'll be there." Marcus replied places the radio back on his hip.

"So, what's going to happen with me?" Eric inquired

"Well either we'll find a shelter for you or you might be stuck with us for the long haul."

Eric wasn't sure how to react to the knowledge of the possibility that he might end up being stuck with a group of people he knew nothing about. At first, he thought Marcus was a member of the EA but his mechanic uniform was different from the officers who were trying to fight off Zaft soldiers attempting to take the mobile suits plus Marcus from Eric's immediate impression didn't put up any real effort to safeguard the machine's in question.

Unfortunately for the teen the only alternative he had available was to get killed off by the Zaft impersonators (At least according to Marcus) so any qualms he may have had with following someone who he scarcely knew the first thing about were more or less irrelevant at the moment.

XXXXX

Bernard had to admit the fact that there was someone who was giving a difficult time was a bit tedious since this particular mission required him to maintain the cover of being a Zaft operative and the longer the mission dragged of the more the risk of that said cover being blown increased but at the same time the CGUE pilot relished some kind of challenge since it'd make carrying his objective out a little more fun. Besides the rifle man who was delaying him had a teen civilian in his charge now so Bernard had an obvious opening to utilize if he needed to bring the clash to a swift end.

"Come on we gotta hurry up before these guys get the machine up and running. It'll make that mission easier to carry out." Bernard announced as he and the squad with him entered the corridor to give chase after the man that took out one of their own before retreating to the neighboring facility.

'To think these guys were literally only next door. Still the fact that their little base of operations was right under the Alliance and Orb's noses is probably why no one knows what their up to.' He thought as he and his squad eventually came to a front lobby area where they were immediately beset by heavy gun fire from a little under ten riflemen not including the one that initially impeded his squad momentarily. As a result, two more members of Bernard's squad were instantly killed whilst he and the remainder were forced to either retreat back into the corridor or take cover behind any furniture they were able to get behind in time.

"Damn these guys really aren't making this easy for us, are they?" One of the squad members hid behind a three-person couch along with Bernard who pulled a grenade off his person and pulled the ring to it.

"Makes sense considering who they're under the employ of." Bernard replied before throwing the explosive which took out around five of six enemies giving his squad the opening the needed to push the defending PMCs defensive line back.

"Let's call in some reinforcements from the Requiem. We'll need them if we run into any more defensive lines."

"But Zaft forces might notice."

"We can just tell them that we have reason to believe there's another mobile suit this way because of how heavily guarded it is. We wouldn't exactly be lying and if they see they'll just jump to the conclusion that it's another mobile suit that the EA made."

XXXXX

"Please open up." Kira's pleaded over the com system to a shelter.

Since the time he and the blond stranger he had decided to follow got separated from Eric they had been forced to retreat from the place where the Earth Alliance's mobile suits were being kept and resumed looking for a shelter which lead them to finding the one they were currently at however…

"I'm sorry we're already at full capacity." A voice replied over the com system much to the brunette's frustration.

"Ok then please just take my friend she just a girl." Kira said grabbing the blond stranger and pushing her into the elevator that lead to the shelter below.

"Hey what are you..?" The Blond teens sentence was cut off as the elevator door closed.

Without waiting for the elevator to head downwards Kira headed back towards where the two machines were kept in hopes of finding Eric.

XXXXX

"Sir we found a Drake class ship docked at one of the colony's harbors." A crewman on the bridge of the requiem reported.

"So, the Earth forces had an extra ship even we had no knowledge of." Rooks mused.

"Actually, the vessel in question isn't showing any type IFF code matching that of the Earth forces."

The Captain of the Requiem raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. "You just informed me it was a Drake class."

"Yes, it's definitely that type of model but it's not showing a signal matching the Earth forces.

"I see." Rook said staring straight ahead silently for a few moments.

"If that's the case then it possible that the ship doesn't actually belong to the Earth forces." The Requiem's captain mused before addressing the rest of the ship's crew.

"Let's destroy it."

"Are you sure there's really a need?" One of the crew members inquired believing that the Drake class ship was more or less harmless to the Requiem's mission and the crew's overall cause.

"Of course. If it's not with the Earth Alliance than it could very well belong to our advisory which means we can likely seal off his personal path of escape and if it's simply a military after all well it's destruction will help us maintain our cover."

XXXXX

"Federica what are you still doing here? You need to board the Alabama before it departs."

"I'm not leaving until Marcus gets here."

Shirou inwardly groaned in annoyance at this while he was well aware of his daughter's personal feeling when it came to the pilot selected and trained to pilot the mobile suit he built in order to combat the leader of the Zaft impersonator's ambition for the people living in the Cosmic Era but this really wasn't the time for Federica to let her emotions let for emotions dictate her action.

"I know you and him are close but that's no excuse to linger in a place that's on the verge of becoming a free fire zone."

"As soon as the Alabama launches its likely to by attacked by Zaft forces or the Earth Alliance so it won't make much of a difference. Besides Marcus has a civilian with him.

Shirou paused upon hearing this before he groaned in annoyance. "Why in the world would he bring an outsider into this."

"I'm not sure, he only said he was forced to bring them with him."

"I see, if that's the case we'll have no alternative but to bring them aboard the Alabama."

Federica's eyes "Father you can't be serious. Once we leave the colony Barclay's men are going to pursue us relentlessly."

"Yes, but thanks to Marcus' impulsiveness it's either bring him with us or leave him to die. We've no time to look for a shelter to put them in."

"So, then it's already been decided what's gonna happen with this kid before I even here." A new voice said causing both Shirou and Federica to turn to see Marcus standing on the second-floor catwalk along with the civilian in question who turned out to be a teen boy who simply stared at the Mobile suit known as the Hope which was currently laying on its back.

"I take it that's the civilian you had brought with you?" Shirou inquired.

"Yeah." Marcus replied as he began leading Eric down a flight of stairs leading to the first floor.

"I see than let's not waste anymore. Federica can take him on board you need to hurry and board the Hope and bring it to the Alabama's hanger bay"

"On it." Marcus replied before that sound of a nearby explosion had taken place causing the whole room to shake violently which in turn caused most people present to lose their footing to fall over.

"What the hell was that?" Marcus asked whilst Shirou rose back to him feet trembling. 'That explosion came from the direction of the Alabama. Don't tell me…!'

A few moments later a voice emanated from a radio on the professor's hip.

"Professor Fujimoto please come in!"

Shirou wasted no time in bringing the radio in front of him. "What is it?"

"It's the Alabama. It's been destroyed!"

"What?! That was our only means to escape."

"So, then what do we do now?!" Marcus inquired.

"We'll have to use the Hope to fight the enemy as well as invading Zaft forces." Shirou declared intent on making sure that the mission the Hope was built to begin didn't come to an abrupt end before it actually started.

"Do you have any idea what you want everyone else here to do?"

"They should take the Hope's replicated data as well as that of the Earth forces new ship then head to any shelters they're able to find and rendezvoused in Orb's mainland."

"That sounds like a swell idea, it truly does however…." A voice said causing everyone to turn to the entrance Eric and Marcus originally used to enter the room and see the man who had initially tried to kill Eric, Kira and that other person when they had initially found the Earth forces new mobile suits along with somewhere around fifteen to twenty other riflemen. "but it's my mission to make sure that doesn't happen!"

With all the gunmen under their squad leader aimed their weapons at various employees working under Shirou who in response ran behind various pieces of equipment and other things large enough to be used as cover before a few who had guns of their own began returning fire.

Marcus immediately pulled Eric between the legs of the mobile suit before peeking out from behind the sole of its foot and returning fire taking out a few Zaft impersonators forcing the rest to scatter whilst their squad leader smirked and began making his way down the stairs leading to the floor while firing at Marcus and forces him back behind cover.

"The name's Bernard remember it well since I'm the one who's gonna end you." The squad leader who was now identified announced.

'As if I plan on dying here.'

At the same time this was happening Shirou had taken aim at Bernard with the intent of taking him out and giving Marcus the time he'd need to board the Hope but before he could fire off even a single shot from the side arm he possessed his heart was suddenly pierced by a bullet from one of the Zaft impersonators still on the second-floor catwalk.

'No, I have to make certain Barclay doesn't do what he wishes unopposed!' The professor thought as he fell to the floor before not before hearing a familiar voice scream out.

"Father!" A horrified Federica screamed out as she ran out from behind the cover she was using to head over to where the professors had fallen to the ground before being stopped by Marcus who quickly grabbed ahold of her ran while she was in mid run and pulled her behind the Hope's leg

"Let me go!" Federica screamed out as tried to break free from Marcus' grip whilst tears streamed down her cheeks.

"If you go out there you'll be killed along with him."

Eric was watching silently could only gaze at what was happening before his very eyes in horror as past memories that he more often than not wished to forget rushed to the surface.

Senseless bloodshed, needless deaths, pointless tragedies all these factors were always very much present in any war, it was for this reason most people would rather avoid any type of warfare since it could easily cost theme the life of a loved one if not their own life and the gun fight unfolding before the teen boy was no different.

The teen boy quickly found himself wishing the events happening around him were nothing more than a nightmare but even if that was the case it would have been one that he wouldn't wake from anytime soon and even that hypothetical scenario would have been nothing short of a luxury at this point considering it would have meant that any loss of life wasn't real.

Unfortunately, truth was a cruel mistress as of now which Eric would be forced to accept weather he liked it or not which became very apparent when Bernard came in front a the area between the legs of the mobile suit and took aim with his rifle before firing at Marcus who threw himself and Federica to the ground narrowly avoiding being killed by the incoming hail of bullets while Eric crouched and leaned against the inner leg of the mobile suit before Marcus returned fire forcing Bernard to take cover behind the sole of the machine's foot.

"You need to get inside the Hope!" Federica who had come to her senses though she was still in somewhat of a grief-stricken state exclaimed.

"I know but I can't get to it at the moment while this guy is trying kill us. If I try board the Hope right now he'd use the opportunity to put a bullet in my back."

"Ya got that right, I really can't let you get in that thing especially since it incorporates the same technology the Mobile suits made by the Earth forces have." Bernard announced peeking around from behind the sole of the Hope's foot and firing at Marcus who dashed to the other side against the opposite leg pulling Federica with him in the process.

Before the assigned pilot could return fire, he felt a hand grab ahold of his side and pull it from its hoister. The hand that grab his handgun of course belonged to none other than Federica who wasted no time in turning off the weapon's safety and firing at Bernard causing him to retreat behind cover.

"Go I'll give you cover so hurry up."

"You need to think about this rationally."

"I am!" Federica replied with a firmness that stunned Marcus into momentary silence before she continued.

"My father created that machine in hopes of stopping Barclay and those under him from carrying their ideal for this world! I'm not going to let it fall into the hands of these bastard or b destroyed before it can carry out its purpose!"

Marcus stared at Federica for a few long moments before he finally decided to simply acknowledge her resolve. "Alright but don't throw your life away."

"Don't worry I won't." Federica said as she continued to fire at the area in front of Bernard to keep him from coming out from behind cover and giving Marcus the breathing room he needed to get to the mobile suits cockpit.

Unfortunately for the assigned pilot who of the few Zaft impersonators who was still on the second-floor catwalk took notice of what he was attempted to do and fire at him as he tried to climb atop the unit's skirt armor forcing him to drop back down. Matters only went from bad to worst when Federica ran out of bullets which Bernard wasted no time in taking advantage of as he came out from behind his cover running across to the other foot firing at Federica in the process and getting her in the left upper arm causing her to scream out as she dropped the side arm and clutched the wound with her right hand.

Bernard took aim to let loose one more bullet to finish her off but was stopped in his tracks when Marcus shot off his own salvo of bullets forcing the squad leader behind the sole of the mobile other foot before he placed himself in front of Federica protectively keeping his gun aimed at the area where Bernard had taken cover ready to fire the moment Bernard emerged which Federica immediately made her protest known to the assigned pilot. "Marcus, you need to board the mobile suit now!"

"I will but I'm not leaving you here to die."

"My life isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. Besides didn't you decided to become the machine's pilot so you have a chance of turning the course of the world's history in a better direction than the one it was currently on? You're not gonna achieve that trying to save everyone."

"I know that!" he retorted silencing injured OS programmer.

"I might only be one person and realistically there's no way I can literally keep anyone and everyone from needlessly dying however, there's no point in even piloting this machine if I'm not able to keep the two people who are currently in front of me from needlessly losing their lives."

Eric's eyes widened considerably upon hearing this. While it might have made sense for Marcus to go to these type of Lengths for Federica since she was someone he knew the fact remained that Eric himself was just a complete stranger who had been caught up in this mess by chance while Marcus might have taken some initiative to save him back when he, Kira, and that other girl stumbled upon the Earth forces Mobile suits but as things stood now it would be far more pragmatistic for him to just worry about Federica and himself and board the mobile suit, that's certainly what any officer of the Earth Alliance have done.

At the same time the squad leader Bernard also picked up on this and smiled in contemplation. 'Nice little sentiment you got there, too bad it's nothing more than an exploitable weakness.' "So ya think you can save the two people with ya huh?"

Marcus tensed up upon hearing this.

"Well then let's see you save the life of the brat you brought here with you."

Marcus' eyes widened as he realized what Bernard was planning to do. As the squad leader dashed from behind cover rolling across the floor in the process before leveling his rifle on Eric who could only watch on in terror.

Was he really going to die here, just like that? He still had no way of knowing if Kira and the Blond stranger they had run into had made it to a shelter or if his adoptive father had, unfortunately regardless of how much he may have wanted these answers he wasn't going to be receiving any of them. There was nothing he could hide behind for cover and throwing himself to the ground wasn't an option since Bernard had already taken aim at him.

Closing his eyes Eric simply waited for the uninventable shot which felt like it took forever before it was finally heard however…..

"MARCUS!" Federica's voice screamed out causing Eric to see that he was still uninjured and that Marcus was now standing in front of him with his rifle aimed at Bernard who fled behind cover as Marcus fired the last of his round before the squad leader discovered he was also out of ammo completely causing a slight scowl to form on his face.

"tch I would have rather taken the other two out also to make that guy's death that much more disheartening but whatever. My mission's more or less accomplished with this groups' chosen pilot down for the count." The squad leader mused to no one in particular before deciding to contact the Requiem.

"This is Bernard here, I managed to shoot the pilot of our target."

The captain of the Requiem immediately replied. "What of the target itself?"

"Still intact but without a pilot we'll easily be able to capture the thing."

"And you're certain the assigned pilot is dead?"

"I shot him straight in his chest, even if he didn't drop immediately internal bleeding will assure he dies sooner or later."

"I see but I want you to standby in your CGUE as a precaution until it's confirmed the machine has been secured."

"Huh?"

"Just do it. Barclay made it clear he would like nothing left to chance."

"Fine." 'Seriously what the fuck could possibly go wrong at this point?'

XXXXX

Eric could only stare at Marcus who stood in front him letting both of his arms fall to his sides dropping his rifle in the process.

"Hey there are still guys wi…" Eric stopped in midsentence sentence as Marcus suddenly fell to his knees before he began to fall forward before Federica caught him.

The tan skinned toned teen starred on confused before deciding to walking around Marcus and Federica to discovered something that made the blood drain from his face as he discovered while he himself had come out uninjured when Bernard tried to kill him. Marcus had taken the shot for him and now sport a wound in his chest that was bleeding out rather profusely.

"Why?" Was all Eric could say earning a silent glare from Federica who was like seeing him as being ungrateful whilst Marcus simply chuckled a bit before coughing blood.

"I'm just a complete stranger so why would you let yourself be shot just for me?" Eric inquired.

"Because I'd never be able to make anything better if I simply ignore someone in front of me when they're life is in danger."

"Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds, trying to play the part of some make-believe hero is only going to put you in danger."

Rather then immediately replaying Marcus grabbed ahold of Eric's hand who near instantaneously felt the most mind-blowing sensation he ever had go through his mind as knowledge of the assigned pilot's ideals, aspirations, and fears all became clear to him all within a single moment without even the smallest margin of error.

He also truly understood just how grim the war being waged could truly become. But still Eric could only wonder what could possibly be done with how intent the Earth forces on enslaving or wiping the Coordinators.

"I've never thought of myself as any type of hero, I simply want the stream of needless losses and tragedies to stop and that won't happen if one simply turns their head away and pretends not to notice anything wrong with the world nothing will change. Living in neutral territory and clinging to the sense of security it gives you won't help bring an end to a meaningless war that's only going to get worst as time goes on." Marcus said before changing the subject.

"You really are just like me. Born with the same abnormal senses that most other people Natural or Coordinator are completely oblivious to."

Eric's eyes widened as another sensation was sent through his mind, this time however instead of an understanding of Marcus' Hope's and dreams it was knowledge of the machine he had trained himself to pilot, more so to the point knowledge of how to pilot the machine.

"I know this is probably the single most unreasonable request in the entirety of humanity considering the torch I'm practically shoving into your hands but you're the only one I can trust." Marcus said baffling the teen.

"How? you literally just only met me today."

"Yes, but I guess I wanted to meet you from the time I first sensed you seeing as it meant there was someone like me before I sought you out and found you in the area containing the Earth forces mobile suit."

Eric's confusion only rose further. "But how could you have possibly known I was there or even sensed me. That's not physically possible."

"Not for most people it isn't, but you and I are an exception because we both have the same special senses the everyone else oblivious to."

The teen and OS programmer stayed silent allowing the dying pilot to continue.

"We've both came to completely understand one another in an instant without any misconception."

As much as Eric would have liked to refute that claim he simply know it would be a vain effort especially with what he now knew about Marcus and vice versa and with how he knew what Marcus was about to request.

"Take the machine and get it out of here before it falls into the hands of those after it."

Federica who had been silent up until now immediately protested. "Marcus, you can't seriously be thinking of handing over my dad's project to some random teenage boy!"

"Federica I'm gonna be dead from internal bleeding in the next few minutes."

"Don't say that. Losing my dad was bad enough but I can't lose you too!"

"There's no avoiding it, the best thing you can do is gather whoever's still left and rendezvous in Ord's mainland before deciding what to do next."

"But…." Federica couldn't bring herself to speak further as tears streaming down her face.

"Federica it'll Ok." Marcus said placing his hand on the side of Federica's face. "I know it'll be hard but you got to move forward."

The dying pilot than turn his attention back to Eric. "Take the Hope to the Earth forces new ship the Archangel. I imagine if the specs are anything to go by it won't be destroyed so easily and with what's happening in the colony it'll be forced to launch sooner or later. You won't be able to miss it, it's a massive white ship that's a new type of vessel never seen by the general public.

"The Earth forces Marcus they're nothing but….." Eric tried to protest before Marcus cut him off.

"I know you have no compassion or trust for the Earth forces and frankly I can't blame you given what they've done to your home before you came to Heliopolis and throughout the course of this war. But it's the best way to keep the mobile suit out of the Zaft impersonators hands. "

As much as Eric would have liked to have refuted that point he knew there'd be no point given the obvious circumstances so the teen stay silent whist Marcus brought another yet far more unexpected point.

"Besides you still have friends and family you wish to protect, don't you?"

Silence was the only response Marcus received before continuing. "Then you can think of the machine as a means of keeping them safe. Use it to safeguard those around you feel are worth protecting."

A nearby explosion likely in the form of a grenade was heard from just outside the mobile suits leg.

"Go." Marcus said before Eric got stood on his feet doing his best to ignore the shaking in his legs as he ran towards the machine's skirt armor before climbing atop of it. Blocking the sounds of gun fire sounding off everywhere as he dashed towards to the mobile suit's cockpit.

Weather or not anyone one took notice of him was anyone's guess but by some miracle Eric made it the torso of the Mobile suits before he opened the hatch of flung himself inside as fast as his body would allow him to before closing the hatch.

XXXXX

"Marcus is this really what we have to do?" Inquired Federica who was still reluctant to leave his prized creation in the hands of some seemingly random teenage boy, well maybe not so random anymore if the finale words exchanged between him and Marcus were anything to go by; it certainly would have explained why Marcus decided to go off by himself to the location where two of the five G weapon were being kept.

"Yeah. Hurry and save as many of our personnel as you can and get out of here, the machine's in Eric's hands now."

"Bu-but!"

"Federica, I appreciate your personal feeling towards me, and honestly I was hoping to be with you once this pointless bloodshed was over, but right now we need to make sure there's still some glimmer of hope for the people who are living in the cosmic Era."

"AL-alright." Federica said before getting to flee the facility with whoever she could gather.

XXXXX

(Play "Anna ni issho Datta)

Eric's fingers ran across the keyboard booting up the machines systems until a panel at the far right end in front of the arm controller lit and displayed the shape of a right hang with the word awaiting biometric data signal registration" above it.

The moment Eric laid eyes on it he wasted no time in pressing his hand against the panel and waited a few moments for it to say "biometric data confirmed." Before the rest of the systems started up completely and the four monitors on either side of him, above him, and directly in front of him came on whilst he manipulated the machine to stand up on its feet to its full height and Marcus' last words to him echoed in his mind

" _Besides you still have friends and family you wish to protect, don't you?"_ "Of course, I do but…."

" _Then you can think of the machine as a means of keeping them safe. Use it to safeguard those around you feel are worth protecting."_ "Do you seriously understand what that entails me to do!?" Eric yelled out in frustration at how the entirety situation had ultimately unfolded.

 **And that's it for the first chapter of the rewritten version of this story sorry it took so long but now for those waiting for the next chapter to A new reason to live I'm gonna work on it now.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter let me know what you think.**


	2. The shock of warfare

**Ok i know there's more than a few people wonder when the next ch pf a new reason to live is coming out and there's been a delay which will be explained in the end notes**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam seed.**

* * *

"Bernard come in." The voice of Rooks demanded before the squad leader who had since left the facility containing the target he was sent to capture or destroy answered his radio.

"I'm here."

"Get to your mobile and ready yourself to subdue or destroy the target."

The CGUE pilot rolled his eyes in annoyance "Um did you miss the part where I informed you that I shot its assigned pilot? Even if the guy actually boarded the machine it'll just be a matter of waiting a minute or two for his ass to bleed out."

"That may have been the case if that pilot was actually the one inside its cockpit."

Bernard raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "OK, then who exactly is in the thing last I checked aside from the PMCs we fought any other people that were in the facility were nothing than your stereotypical lab coat wearing nerds."

"Believe or not it was no one from among either of the groups you mentioned but rather a third party civilian."

"Huh you've gotta be kidding what random civie could possibly have had the chance to stumble upon the pla-!" Bernard stopped himself in midsentence when he suddenly remembered the teen boy he initially saw when he made it to the area that two of the Earth Alliance's G weapon mobile suits were being kept and whom the assigned pilot of his target took a bullet for.

"You gotta be kidding me." Bernard said more so to himself then to Rooks.

"That is what was reported by our men who stayed behind to ensure the mobile suit's capture weather you want to beleive it or not."

"That's not what I meant, I just realized who the so called third party civilian likely is."

"You mean it's someone you know personally?"

"No rather it's likely some random brat I chased into the facility. Tell me, did any of the reports indicate it being a teenage boy with tan skin and black curly hair?"

"That was the general description we have been given."

"Then that pretty much settles it. Don't worry we'll have our trophy bagged in no time if that pipsqeak's the one behind the machine's controls."

"Don't get complacent he may not be a member of any military faction but that doesn't you can afford to let you gaurd down the report stated he's succeeded in activating and effectively moving the suit."

"Huh, there's no wa..." Bernard stopped in midsentnced upon hearing the sound of metal being turn and looked in the direction of the facilty containing his squads initial target in time to see the mobile suit in question tear though a shutter door to get to the outside whilst noticing it's movements weren't nearly as awkward as he would have expected.

'So either that machine performs really well even in the hands of a natural or that brat's a Coordinator.' Bernard thought before smirking.

'Well if a GINN doesn't do you in first it might actually be a little worth seeing if you can put enough of a struggle not to suck too much.' The CGUE pilot thought as he continued to where his mobile suit was located.

XXXXX

Eric could scarcely believe what was happening. It was more than hard enough to come to terms with everything that had already happened when the attack on Heliopolis by Zaft had begun and now he was actually piloting a Mobile suit he had never laid eyes on before today.

The entire experience was surreal to say the least. Eric had no knowldge of how mobile suits before today and yet now he was able to pilot the machine he was currently inside of, not to say he was a pro, he simply knew what every level and button did, that alone didn't equat to being a fighter by any means.

Glancing at the pc type panel beneath the monitor displaying the outside area directly the teen boy was met with an interesting vertical alignments of words which read "General Unilateral Neuro-Link Dispersive Autonomic Maneuver"

What caught his interest wasn't the wording itself but rather the unusual acronym the first letter of each word in question created.

'Gundam? Is that the type of mobile suit this is?' Eric wondered before spotting smaller text below the alignment of words which read. "

XXG33-Hope"

"I guess that means this machine's known as the Hope Gundam." Eric said before the alarms went off alerting him to an incoming GINN which landed a little ways away in front of him before aiming its machine gun at him.

Eric immediately felt a cold sensation in his stomach before he manage to press one of the bottoms on the side of the PC panel which was meant to activate a specail feature called phase shift armor which in turn caused the entirety of the Hope's outer armor to completely change its array of colors.

The machine now had snow white limbs and head. Its chest which was almost dome shaped and mostly plain save for its center jewel was a light shade of silver with an even lighter siver outlining ring circling around the said center jewel which was sky blue. The shoulders extended outward and had silver linings along their edges that along with the soles of the gundam's feet which were the same shade of light silver as the chest area.

It's skirt armor and the general shape of its head save for its V fin were the same of the Earth forces G weapon that Eric stumbled upon with Kira and the blond stranger before they got seperated. Two white jet like wings extended from the machines back both sides of the thruster of reached towards the ground.

In terms of armaments the Hope appeared to have a set of twin railguns attached mount on top of each shoulder along a shield mounted to its left arm with a built in vulcan gun not unlike that of a standard CGUE.

Any other the mobile suit might have been equipped with were those Eric couldn't be too sure of at the moment and to make matters worse a nearby GINN seemed to have spotted him and simply stared in his general direction for a few moments before it deciced to take aim with its machine gun.

Due to being unprepared Eric wasn't able to react to the incoming attack and was near instantly pelted with spray of bullets. Much to the teen's relief however the Hope's phase shift armor insured that no real damage was done.

The Zaft GINN simply looked on likely because of whoever behind its control's confusion but didn't take long before they fired off another spray of bullets however this time Eric was much more alert and raised his shield to block the incoming bullets.

No sooner than the said spray of bullets ended Eric attempted to retaliate via the Hope's shield mounted Vulcan. After taking aim Eric wasted no time in returning fire.

Much to his frustration however the rounds from his Vulcan didn't do much aside from chipping away a few peices off the surface of the GINN's armor and forcing it to pull back.

It didn't take long before the GINN took aim with its machine gun once again and fire another round of bullets. This time Eric reacted in time to avoid the oncoming onslaught via propelling the Hope to the side before returning fire briefly before the shield Vulcan suddenly stopped firing baffling the teen before he glanced at a meter showing "000 bullets".

'Dammit this isn't the time to be running out of ammo!'

The situation only degraded further when the GINN utilized the opportunity to retake the offensive and open fire at the Hope once again.

Eric gritted his teath in frustration before he crouched and placed the Hope's arm in front of him with the Gundam's elbow point outward before engaging the thrusters and propelling the Hope forward straight towards the GINN whilst ignoring the incoming fire.

The following result was a head on collision which sent the GINN to the ground sprawled out on its back, the machine gun leaving its hands.

Eric panted for a few moments attempting to regain some semblance of his composor whilst hoping that he had won before he heard groaning over an open radio channel as the GINN rose back to its feet.

"You're actually managing to somehow put up something of an actual fight unlike all the other Naturals I've shot down." A voice belonging to the pilot of the Zaft unit declared.

"But I get the feeling its only because of that machine you're piloting but if you're feeling up to the task."

The enemy pilot drew their machine's heavy sword. "Why don't we put it to the test? Otherwise stop struggling and let me kill you!"

With that the GINN made a direct beeline for the Hope with its sword raised overhead.

In response to the incoming assault Eric raised his shield to meet the incoming attack. The GINN made no real effort to manuver their blade around the defensive armament and simply slammed their heavy sword against it however Eric recieved no breathing room after the fact as the Zaft pilot proceeded to start swinging their heavy sword into the shield rather erratically.

Weather it was Left, right, up, down, or daignolly there was no real pattern to the GINN's attacks in fact they mine as well have simply been swinging away at the shield in hopes of evetually breaking it, given what was happening it wouldn't be very far flung to assume such a thing.

In terms of success Eric doubted the Zaft pilot was actually making any real headway since no damage indicator type alarms were going off and in all honesty the teen was both surprised and grateful at the same time.

The reason for his being surprised was because of how the shield was holding up even with the sheer amount of abuse it taking, overall it was pretty amazing considering the constant stream and attacks it was being used to block along with the force behind those said attacks.

He was also grateful since the situation wasn't particularly the most favorable one as it currently was but if the shield were to actually break that would only serve to make things go from bad to far worse.

Regardless however the fact remained that Eric was in a bad spot and he needed someway to turn things around and soon.

Typing away on the monitor Eric skimmed through other armaments the Gundam had available.

Aparently it had three more. First was a set of twin rainguns mounted on both of its shoulders which were out of the question since he couldn't use them without lowering his shield unless he wanted to damage his own machine by shooting its arm.

Second was a beam saber for close quarters combat which would actually be rather ideal for this particular ordeal Eric was currently faced with if not for the fact was only eighty five percent completed in terms of its construction meaning it was currently inoperable.

The final weapon was simple pair of armor Schneider knives both housed in the right side of the skirt armor which were likely more of a fall back weapon or secondary one to the beam saber though one adavantage they had was that they could be thrown at an enemy.

Acting quickly and on pure instinct and adrenaline Eric quickly drew one of the knives out and plunged it straight into the cockpit of the GINN as it impacted the the Hope's shield with its heavy sword again.

For the first few moments the GINN simply stood in place with its blade against the Hope's shield before Eric took the opportunity to seperate himself from the Zaft mobile suit which fell forword as soon as it no longer had the Hope's shield supporting its weight.

Eric simply stared at the downed GINN in shock as it sunk in that while he may have just gotten out of an extremely bad situation he had just taken another human being's life.

While Eric knew it was unavailable from the moment he set foot inside the Hope Gundam's cockpit in order to fulfill Marcus' last request but it was still hard to take in, he had essentially commited murder.

Unfortunately Eric was forced to push his shock from the forefront of his mind as a familiar voice laughed over the radio.

"Ya know I thought when I was ordered to get my CGUE ready for a fight it would be a waste of my time considering who's in the cockpit of that machine but it looks like you might not suck too badly."

Immediately upon seeing the squad leader via the radio link after patching him through Eric remembered how Marcus died right before his very eyes and glared.

"You...you're the one who killed Marcus!"

"Hey last I checked he jumped in front of a bullet meant for your worthless ass and the name's Bernard you'd do well to remember it even if it'll be the last one you ever know."

Almost immediatly afterword Eric found himself under fire from above and looked to discover a Zaft CGUE flying overhead.

In a fit of panic Eric did the only thing he could think of off the top of his head and pressed on the button at the left end of the right arm controller and fired to samultanious crimson colored beams from both shoulder mounted railguns at the incoming mobile suit which manuvered itself out of the their path whilst both beams soared straight into a colony wall creating a gaping hole in it allow air to began rapidly escape the colony's interior.

Eric's eyes widened in horror at the damage he caused but he didn't have time truly let the fact sink in since Bernard took the oppotunity to let loose another round of bullets while circling around the Hope from the air.

Eric grunted in frustration as he felt the Gundam violently viberation from each hit. It didn't help the situation when he heard sadistic laughter coming from Bernard over the radio.

"What's a matter? Trigger key broken or do you just lacked the nerve to pull it?"

"Take a look at the colony wall!"

"Yeah so, what about it?"

"Heliopolis can't take that kind of damage!"

A chuckle was heard over the radio.

"You're seriously worried this place or is it then people? A word to the wise kid, you'd best just worry about you're own life." With that Bernard continued to rain bullets from the air much to Eric's added frustration.

'Dammit, dammit!' He couldn't use the railguns since they proved to be powerful enough to easily peirce straight through colony's walls and the only other weapon that had enough range to potentiality hit Bernard's CGUE was out of ammo meaning the only option Eric had at his disposal was to face Bernard in close quarters combat.

Still the only weapon Eric had left for that type of situation was the one remaining Schneider knife and he had a sneaking suspicion that wouldn't be enough in this situation.

By some off chance he laid eyes on the heavy sword the downed GINN was using against him now laying on the asphalt road having fell from the Zaft unit's hands.

Exactly how much it would improve the situation was something the teen was unsure of but the sword was his best and only real option.

After quickly grabbing the offensive armament Eric quickly broke into a full sprint in Bernard's general direction as the CGUE pilot bore a predatory smile.

"So you want to fight up close and personal huh?" Bernard said putting away his machine gun and switching over to his own heavy sword.

"Then let's see what you got!" Bernard announced before rapidly decending towards ground before transistioning into a glide along just before he could touch down and went straight for the Hope.

As Bernard closed the distance between himself and the Hope bringing his blade around in a wide horizantal swing.

Eric was barely able to react time via taking the heavy sword he pilfered from his previous enemy in both of his machine's hands and holding it front of him in order to block the incoming attack.

Bernard simply grinned after the two blades made contact and quickly glided above the ground strafing around Eric and attepted to attack from the right.

Once again the teen managed to intercept and block the attack.

"Well what do ya know, I was right in thinking this kid might be a little fun to fight afterall." The CGUE pilot mused to himself before decided to fully take the offensive and attempt a series of attacks swinging his blade repeatedly at the Hope.

Eric managed to clumsily block some of the attacks his sword but many others were slipping past his defenses and hitting the Hope's main body in various places. In response to his immediate predicament the teen switched to keeping the heavy sword he aquired primarily in his machine's right hand so he could once again untilize his shield.

The tactic did help ease the burden to an extent since it allowed him to further utilize the Hope's defensive featurs. However it did not remedy Eric's current predicament, while he increased how solid his defense was the fact remained that Bernard was on a visibly higher level in terms of skill than the teen's previous opponent.

Unlike the GINN pilot who simply swung their weapon with blind blood lust Bernard's were far more precise and thought out. Where the GINN had simply attempted to blindly hammer away at Eric's defense until something would give Bernard would either parry Eric's sword or shield depending on which armamnet his attack was aimed at out of the way before attacking the Hope itself or simply maneuver his attack around, over, or under one of the two armaments Eric currently was using and hit the Hope directly that way.

Once again Eric found himself more than a little grateful for the Hope's high specs and advanced technology. Much like the shield the armor that made up the Gundam's body was unbelievably strong. Even with all the hits the body was taking there still wasn't a scratch.

He likely had the armor's phase shift feature to thank for that, heck if it wasn't for that characteristic Eric was pretty certain the Hope would have already been destroyed, however there was one fatal weakness to the Hope and more than likely the other Gundams made by the Earth forces and that was that they were all powered by ultracompact batteries which had a limited power supply.

If that said power supply were to ever run out the machines would be left unable to move, keep their phase shift armor active or utilize their weapons, essentially they'd be vulnerable and defenseless.

Unfortunately Eric was well on his way to that happening with his power supply being at fortysix percent gradually dropping.

The situation worsened when Bernard suddenly straffed around Eric until he was behind him whilst performing a spin attack with his heavy sword catching the Hope gundam behind the knee causing it to fall to on the said knee before planting his CGUE's foot in the Gundam's back causing it to fall over face first into the ground.

Much the Eric's dismay Bernard pressed his assualt further via coming up on his side and delivering hard kick to the Hope's abdominal area sending it into a building.

In quick haste Eric got his machine up to its arms and knees before propelling it into the air narrowly avoiding another heavy sword strike from Bernard who tried to rush him.

For a few moments the teen had earned much needed breathing long enough to catch a glimpse of one of the other Gundams that he saw ealier which now had a white head and limbs and blue chest along with a red torso fighting a Zaft GINN with a pair of armor Schneider knives.

As fate would have it however whatever breathing Eric had obtained was quickly lost when Bernard also took to the air and made a beeline for the Hope.

Refocusing on his attention on his current opponent Eric raised his shield in time to block an overswing from Bernard before attempting to counter with horizantal swimg of his own heavy sword only for Bernard to pull back just out of the attack's range before closing in again and bringing his own weapon upward.

Much to the teen's shock Bernard managed to catch his blade under the hand guard of Eric's heavy sword and in turn disarm him of it.

Now without an offensive weapon in hand Eric tried to pull back only for the enemy CGUE to immediately give chase readying its heavy sword for another overhead swing.

"At this rate I'm going to be killed!" Eric exclaimed to himself forgetting his machine's radio was still connected to that of the enemy's and inadvertently prompting a response.

"You just now realized that? That fact was obvious the moment you made the mistake of getting inside that mobile suit!"

The CGUE swung its weapon against the Hope's shield.

"But I gotta admit the suit itself is pretty impressive if nothing else." Bernards declared before sending a kick straight into the Hope's chest.

"In the end though it doesn't mean jack shit in the hands of worthless ass brat like you!"

CGUE pointed its sword straight forward and closed in on the Hope.

Eric felt an increasing sense of fear overtaking him. While the Hope's armor was currently rendering any of Bernards attacks usless that factor would only last until the Hope's battery was drained.

Right now it was at twentythree percent and still dropping thanks to the constant abuse the machine was being subjected to. With the way things were going it'd only take another few minutes before the Hope eventually ran out of power and in turn would become nothing but a defenseless target.

As it truly started to sink in just how grim his situation was becoming panic started to overtake Eric's mind as time seemed to slowdown for him.

'I don't wanna die.'

The CGUE came ever closer with the point of its sword aimed straight at the Hope.

'I don't wanna die!'

Eric's hands started visibly shacking inside the Hope's cockpit as the only thoughts in his head were now those of survival

"I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

Eric's fingure pressed down on the trigger key for the twin railguns and immediately after two simultaneous crimson colored beams were let loose from both shoulder mounted railguns.

Do to his eagerness to attack the Hope Gundam once more Bernard was ill prepared for the counter Eric sent at him.

'I'm not about to get done in be some lucky cheapshop!' Bernard quickly attemptet to manuver his CGUE to the right and out of the path of the two blast however while he avoided being shotdown outright both the left arm and leg were ultimately lost.

'Are you kidding me?!'

Meanwhile Eric drew his remaining Schneider knife and rushed Bernard slashing his mobile across its chest causing Bernerd pull and send a swift kick to the Hope's chest with his remaining leg before turning around to making beeline for a hole in the colony wall made when Eric fired the railguns a second time.

"You lucked out kid but that won't last forever, you'll be as dead as that guy who took a bullet for you soon enough."

Once the enemy CGUE was gone Eric finally found himself calming down enough to survy the area around him from the air and was horrified by the sight the befell him.

Many builings were destroyed or burning and rubble was scattered everywhere but what really made the scene so horrific was the numerous corpses that laid atop rubble or in the streets.

Eric felt himself go numb as it dawned on him just how bad the damage to the colony was thanks to the attack by Zaft and by the fighting they did with the Earth forces, with the white, blue, and red Gundam, and finally with Eric himself.

The teen remembered both times he fired the twin railguns and puntcher holes in the colony walls allowing air to escape through them and realized that one of them was located right next to a residential district and just what his impulsiveness during the fight may have costed the people living in Heliopolis.

'No! I had no choice. I wasn't trying to get anyone who wasn't invovled killed!'

Eric soon found himself pulled from his thoughts when he found someone new hailing him over the radio.

Using one of the secondary camera's on the Hope to determine the source he soon was shown a close up image of the other Gundam that had also fought off a Zaft mobile suit.

"This is the Strike, unknown mobile suit come in." Came a rather familiar voice over the radio causing Eric's eyes to widen in disbelief before he patched them through allowing a window to display a pitcher of the other Gundam's pilot which was none other than Kira Yamato who wore an extremely similar expression of utter disbelief.

"Kira is that really you? What are you doing in that mobile suit?!"

"I could ask you that same thing!"

"I found mine by complete accident and was forced to pilot it because of everything happening around me. How about you?"

"Same thing more or less. But let's find somewhere to land I want to make sure the others are safe."

"You know what shelter they're in?"

"Actually they're not in any shelter."

"What? How can that be?"

"I saw them trying to get out of the area while we were getting attacked by a GINN."

"We?"

"Yeah there's another person in here with me. She's injured and unconscious."

"Alright let's find an open area where we won't cause anymore damage to the colony."

XXXXX

On board the Requiem Bernard had just flew his damaged CGUE into the ship's safety net before laying the mobile suit on its back across the hanger bay's floor since it could no longer stand.

As Bernard emerged from the cockpit of the machine taking off his helmet in the process he was immediately greeted with the sight off Rooks along with another person standing next to him.

The individual in question was a boy in his teens with brown hair that curved to the right who wore black jeans and an open hoodie over a red shirt. Overall the teen had appearance of typical high school delinquent but their said appearance was more than a little deceiving.

"I see you failed to deal with the target." Rooks calmly mused whilst the teens merely starred at the situation with a near uncaring gaze.

"The machine's specs were a lot higher than anything any person on this ship or within our group could have anticiapted."

"Care to explain the details?"

"It's armor essentially rendered both my machine gun and heavy sword ineffective."

Rooks paused momentarily before replying. "What of it's weaponry."

"From what I saw it had your typcial CGUE type Vulcan shield on it's left arm only the thing was seriously reinforced to withstand a lot more abuse and two Knives in house in the right side of its skirt armor."

"I find it hard to believe you lost two entire limbs of your mobile suit to a mere pair of knives."

"No what did that was a pair of guns mounted on the Machine's shoulders which packed enough heat to balst clean through the colony walls."

The unknown teen finally spoke up for the first time.

"You do realize that makes your failure to capture or destroy it that much more of a risk to our entire faction don't you?"

Bernard shot the teen an annoyed glare. "The machine's being piloted by some random shitstain boy who has no experience on any battlefield. Keep your mouth shut, just because you're Barclay's favorite doesn't put you in any position to talk down to me."

"Nor does your false sense of self supperiority actually erase you fuck ups."

Bernard's anger rose before Rooks intervened.

"Enough this isn't the time to be arguing amongst one another. Right now we need to decide our next move."

"Just get me another mobile suit and I'll make sure that machine isn't even recognisable even to its creator."

The teen rolled his eyes."We can't afford to do anything rash let alone throw ourselves at the unit blindly."

"You scared?" Bernard shot off.

"Simply cautious, afterall it won't do any good to lose the limbs of anymore of our units." The teen retorted before continuing.

"Besides that Zaft forces we came here with were bound to have noticed that machine as well, we'll have to report to them what you told us about that mobile suit to avoid suspicion."

Bernard groaned in annoyance. "Who cares what those fucktards think of us. Correct me if I'm wrong but I could have sworn I caught a glimps of one of the Earth Alliance's mobile suits fighting a GINN so I doubt they're in a position to judge us for what went wrong on our part."

"Maybe but they can draw any number of conclusions if we act too secretive about what had taken place."

"So what does that mean we're suppose to spill the beans about what we're really doing here? I doubt that'll go over well."

"But we can simply tell them part of the truth, that we found the machine in the neighboring facility next to Morgenroete and tried to subdue it and nothing more." Rooks said.

"So we're basically manipulating Zaft to go after the unit for us?" Bernard inquired.

"It's far more preferable to the ultimatum of being forced to fight off both sides whilst trying to take down our initial target."

"Whatever you say." Bernard said walking off.

"That idiot's ego is going to be the doom of High Judgment in it's entirety. You know that right?" The teen said.

"I won't deny his habit of wanting to leap before looking leaves much to be desired but at the very least we can have some estimate to just how powerful to target along with the other mobile suits built here truly are and from there development countermeasures against them."

"I see to it that when the data extracted from the machines in Zaft's possession we have our own copy of it." With that the teen began exiting the hanger bay.

XXXXX

"Where in the world did you come across these things!?" Mirriallia exclaimed referring to the Hope and Strike Gundams which were both powered down and lowered to one knee.

Since the time the fighting had stopped Eric and Kira had found their friends and they all agreed to gather at the park where they could let the other person who was inside the Strike with Kira rest on a bench

"In the morgeneote facility." Kira answered honestly.

"And I found the other one right next door to the place." Eric answered doing his best to keep the images of what had transpired earlier when he was forced to pilot the Hope Gundam out of his mind before he glanced at a brown haired woman laying unconscious on a bench.

From what Kira said it sounded extremely likely she was an earth forces officor which was something the filled Eric with no shortage of disgust.

Still unfortunately in order to get the Hope away from whoever the Zaft impersonators were he'd have no choice but to take it to the Earth forces.

While he was well aware that the group that was after the Hope was by no means a good one if Bernard's presence within it was anything to go by especailly if one took his lack of consideration for human life into account.

But still the Earth Alliance was hardly any better considering the only cause they were fighting for was the enslavement if not absolute genocide of the opposite side.

Unfortunately the term beggers" can't be choosers" really applied to this situation. In conclusion it all came back to the fact that Eric didn't have a choice.

"So these machines are really the same kind?" Mirriallia asked.

"I think so, neither of them look anything like any Zaft model." Sai replied.

"What I wanna know is why both of them turned gray."

"Your guess is as good as mine." Mirriallia said before casting a glance a Tolle who was messing around in the Strike's cockpit while Kuzzy and Callahan were sitting on its shoulders.

"These so called Gundams are awesome!" Tolle announced in facination.

'So long as you don't have to use one of them in an actual fight.' Eric thought remembering the sheer amount of terror he felt just a little over an hour ago. Honestly right now he envied his friend's naivety of the situation, it was almost like they'd forgotten the everything that had just happened or maybe they were under the false impression it was over.

As much as the Eric would have liked for that to have actually been the case he had the feeling Zaft forces and the group after the Gundam he recently aquired thanks to the death of its intended pilot wouldn't give up so easily and if they were to show up now or soon enough in the near future it would likely be the end of it unless Kira could fight them off on his own or the Earth Alliance could muster enough forces to drive Zaft away since the Hope was nearly out of power.

Around this time Eric heard the distinct sound of groaning from a voice he could only assume belonged to the Earth Alliance officor that was with Kira in the Strike.

His suspicion was quickly confirmed when he saw the woman in question sitting up before Mirriallia offerred her a bottle of water.

Unfortunately the woman's awakening wasn't really anything of a blessing no sooner than she realized and registered the presence and the Strike and Hope that she pulled out a hand gun shooting at Tolle before yelling at him and Kuzzy to get off the mobile suit which earned verbal protest from Kira.

"Hey will you stop this? They helped us carry you out of that mobile suit!"

The Earth forces woman than turned her gun on the Brunette. "And for that I'm grateful but you along with your friends here have all been exposed to classified military secretes."

The Earth Alliance officor then turned her gaze to Hope long enough to give a brief glance.

"Plus I have questions about this unkown Mobile suit. Now I want all of to line over there."

Everyone reluctantly follow the officer's instruction.

"Now give me your names one at a time."

"Sai Argyle"

"Kuzzy Buskirk."

"Tolle Koenig."

"Callahan Raglan."

"Mirriallia Haw."

"Kira Yamato."

"Eric Raglan."

The Earth forces mentally noted that Callahan and Eric shared the same last name before replying.

"And I'm Murrue Ramias and unfortunately I going to have to inform you that you'll all have to remain with me at all time until this matter has been brought to the attention of the proper authorities where it will then be determined how the situation is to be handled."

"You can't be serious. Heliopolis is part of a nuetral nation we have nothing to do with this war." Tolle protested.

"Do you really believe that even now? With everything that's been happening around you it should be clear that you're all already a part of it wheather you accept it or not. But that's irrelevant, now who was piloting the other machine." The officor now identified as Ramias demanded.

Eric tensed up he really didn't want to give her any information considering which side of the war she was on but as things stood he had no choice.

"I was."

Ramias shot him an annoyed glare. "This isn't the time for jokes."

Taking notice of the woman's irritation Kira realized he needed to back up Eric's statement.

"No, he's actually telling the truth."

"You honestly expect to me believe that a mobile suit which incorporates the same design and technology the G weapons ended in the hands of a random teenage civilian?"

"I'm a civilian and I was still able pilot the Strike wasn't I?"

Ramias found herself unable to retort, while the general idea of allowing any civilian to operate a piece of weaponry with state of the art weapons was less than believable due to the sheer idiocy behind the entire cocept the fact remained that Kira Yamato had without a doubt driven the Strike today.

Turning her gaze to Eric Ramias' eyes narrowed.

"If you were truly piloting that machine then tell me where did you find it, who made it, and everything else you know about it."

"I found it right next door to the Morgeneote building."

Judging by the expression Eric was recieving it became abundantly clear the Ramias didn't completely buy the explanation even though it was actually the truth but she wasn't dismissing it as a lie outright either, simply put she decided to take the teens word for it at least for the time being.

"Can you tell me anything about who made it?"

"The most I can tell you is that they weren't Morgeneote employees and that they had PMCs with them which along with some of the employees tried to fight off Zaft forces storming the place."

"I see. That leaves two more things that I want clear answers on." Ramias said slightly tighting the grip on her hand to silently send the message "If you lie your getting shot." to the teen.

"How did you wind up piloting that machine?"

"During all the fighting was happening around me I managed to get to the suit's cockpit."

"So you more or less stole it."

"I was caught in the middle of an all out gun fight, the suit was my only way out."

"Fair enough. Last thing what's the machine called?"

"The Hope."

"Hold up. What's the big deal with Eric's machine? If the one Kira used is anything to go by then there are others like it aren't there?" Tolle inquired.

Ramias contemplated how to reply for a few moments. While under normal circumstances she wouldn't say anything to affirm such an assumption since it would mean revealing classified information but these kids have already seen the Strike and the other mobile suit Eric identified as the Hope plus all four of the other ones had been stolen by the enemy so at this point trying to hide their existence was more or less meaningless.

"Yes there were five in all built by the Earth Alliance that were dubbed the Duel, Buster, Blitz, Aegis, and the Strike that Kira Yamato operated which were all meant to counter Zaft technological advantage however the Hope wasn't one the Earth Alliance had any hand in making."

"Wait you mean even you guys didn't know anything about the Gundam Eric piloted?" Kira questioned.

"Exactly, which raises the question of who else could have possibly had the resources and man power build it."

"Zaft maybe." Tolle suggested only for Eric to shoot that idea down.

"No they were trying to steal from the people who did."

Speaking of which l almost forgot to ask this but where are they, those that made the Hope G weapon?" Ramias demanded.

"After I got into the Hope and activated its camera's I saw those who were still alive fleeing the place, they might have went for the shelters but I'm not entirely sure."

That was something of a lie. After hearing about how their original plan of escape was destroyed it became apparent that the group that created the Hope's only real option was to head for any shelters they could find.

"Alright with all that out of the way I need you and all your friends' help with preparing for the next attack."

Everyone save for Tolle simply starred at the Earth Alliance woman in silent confusion.

"Um how exactly are we supposed to help do that?"

XXXXX

"How the fuck did those Natural's hide this from us!?" Demanded Yzak who was more than a little irritated when it was revealed that there existed a sixth mobile suit just like the ones Zaft had secured.

When the report was sent by the Requiem of its discovery everyone onboared the Vesalius was more than a bit skeptical to believe it mainly because the idea that the mobile suit in question being hidden right under their noses when the others were easily discovered was somewhat of an insult to their pride since it undermined the belief that they couldn't be outwitted by any Natural.

"Not a clue. But we'll simply have to take it along with the Strike." Replied the Zaft red pilot who had recently secured the Buster known of Dearka Eslmen replied nonchalantly.

The Zaft commander simply watched the footage with great interest.

'I have to admit this suit's capabilities certainly impressive and if what Athrun is told me thus far about the machines we did manage to take is anything to go by then it'd be safe to assume that all of them have the same capabilities as this one.' The commander that.

"Whatever the case maybe we can't afford to underestimate the power these new mobile suits possess. Regardless it would be well within our best interest to deal with this now in the early stages."

Athrun tensed up upon hearing that. Back when he and Rusty had forced their way into the Morgeneote facility in order to secure the Aegis and Strike Rusty was killed in the ensuing gun fight before the latter of the targets was boarded by an Earth forces officer along with the childfriend that Athrun had not heard from many years.

'Kira please don't let it actually turn that is was you piloting that machine!'

God knew that the very idea of potentially having to face his friend from so many years ago as an enemy on the battlefield was a nightmare Athrun was not prepared for by any means. If it really came down to having to fight his best friend...

No there wasn't anyway the could happen, Kira was a fellow Coordinator he couldn't possibly consider fighting on the side of the Naturals especially when they were hell bent on doing whatever they could to harm those living in the Plants.

"I'll be heading out again to confront the units still in the earth forces possession." The Commander announced.

"Sir isn't that a bit reckless?" Nicole inquired.

"As I said before it would be well within our best interest to deal with this threat sooner rather than later." The Commander replied before leaving the bridge.

XXXXX

"Is this the trailor you were talking about?" Sai inquired from the driver seat of a truck he brought with him to the location of the Strike as per Ramias' instructions.

"Yeah. Kira I want you to mount the pack that the trailer contains to the Strike."

"Alright." The Brunette replied from inside the Strike's cockpit before opening the tailer revealing an a long cannon along with a shoulder Gatling gun and missile launcher all connected to a metal backpack.

Turning the Strike around so its back was facing the the pack Kira began crouching the mobile suit so it was aligned with the set of armaments.

Meanwhile Eric was now attempting to contact the Earth Alliance ship that Ramias told him was the Archangel.

Originally Ramias had wanted Kira to be the one to contact to the ship while Eric kept watch for the enemy to avoid confusion from the ship's crew but when the teen explained that not only was the Hope's battery nearly out of power and that the only weapon the Gundam had left was a stingle armor Schneider knife she relented.

"Archangel please come in. This is the Hope please come in."

All the teen recieved was static. 'Dammit will somebody please hurry up and answer!' Eric thought with a sense of anxiety hanging over him.

He wasn't the least bit eager to have another run in with the enemy least of all now of all times. The amount of fighting he'd already went through was enough for him for one day if not an entire lifetime. It was taking every ounce of his will power to keep the images of all the people he saw die today and the destruction inadvertently caused by him out of his mind plus that wasn't even counting the obvious disadvantage he'd be at if Zaft units were show up right now.

Even with his exchange with Marcus there was no way the teen could have known the true extent of just how terrifying it was to take part in a war.

Relief washed over him when he finally recieved an actual response on the channel Ramias instructed him to use.

"Who is this? How did you get access to this channel?!"

Ramius who had been standing close enough to hear quickly climbed into the cockpit and replied.

"This is lieutenant Murrure Ramias of the seventh devision. We need extraction for the Strike and the Hope now."

The was silence on the other end at first before another reply came.

"The Hope? We never had any weapon by that name."

"There's no time to explain right at the moment, you'll understand when you get here. The enemy has stolen four of the G weapons and the only left we still have is the Strike along with the Hope. Please come to the location I'm about to have the pilot send you ASAP."

Without waiting any instruction from Ramias Eric sent out an SOS signal essentially telegraming his and the other's position.

"We've recieved your location and are on our way. Just hold tight until we arrive." With that the connection was cut.

Scarcely a moment afterwards however the alarms in the Hope's cockpit went off alerting both the civilian teen and Earth Alliance lieutenant to an incoming unit which was quickly discovered to be a CGUE.

Upon registering its presense Eric and Kira both actived the phase shift armor on their machines.

While the formor was far from being in any ideal condition to fight due to his mobile suit's current lack of weaponry and battery life the phase shift armor could still very well boost the Hope's defense in case it was shot.

The Zaft mobile suit aimed its rifle at the Strike and open fired. Unsurprisingly the bullets had no real effect aside from shaking up the young Coordinator pilot.

It seemed whoever the pilot was they also took notice of the lack of a effect from their ranged weapon and decided to switch to their heavy sword before flying strait after the Strike.

Immediately in response then incomong assualt Kira took aim with the newly equipped impulse cannon.

Upon seeing what the Brunette intended to do Ramias made a frantic attempt to get his attention.

"Wait! That weapon's too powerful!"

Ultimately her warning fell on deaf ears as Kira fired the long range weapon letting loose a long red beam which flew towards the enemy unit.

The CGUE managed to dodge the blast avoiding being shot down altogether but lost their right arm.

However things didn't end there by any means as the shot from the impluse cannon tore through colony wall not unlike the twin railgun on the shoulders of Eric's Hope.

Kira became visibly startled by the damage to the the colony whilst the CGUE sieze the opportunity to retreat through the newly made opening.

Ramias gritted her teeth in exasperation at the sight. 'We can't keep causing further damage to the colony. If this keep up...'

"Where did that ship came from?!" Callahan exclaimed causing everyone to in the direction he was looking.

A massive white ship unlike any every seen before was heading in there direction at a steady pace.

"So they made it." Ramias mused climbing out of the Hope's cokcpit leaving Eric alone.

"Marcus is this the ship you were talking about?"

XXXXX

On the Vesalius Rau La Cruset had just boarded the ship letting the emergency net catch his suit in the process.

"It looks like taking down those two suits mau be more difficult than I had originally anticipated though I probably should have expected this given the footage I've seen of that other mobile suit." The Zaft Cammander mused before smiling.

"Still their initial creation could prove to bring an interest turn of events going forward."

* * *

 **Ok that's it for the second chapter. I hope you liked it.**

 **Ps I know I previously said I was going to work on the eighth ch9 of a new reason to live but the monitor to my pc broke so now I have to get it fixed unless you all would prefere to start over on my Ipad.**

 **And to anyone who noticed when the text said both knives were located on the right side inside the skirt armor, no that is not a flaw. Originally I was going to have them on both sides so Eric cpuld duel wield them the same way Kira does with the Strike or Shinn with the impulse but later realized that would be a problem since the Vuclan shield gun mounted to the Hope's left arm would get in the way of Eric trying to use a knife in the Hope left hand.**

 **Beyond that I'm curious to know if I did a decent enough job capturing Eric's emotional struggle to adapt to the situation right there on the spot due to being a civilian with no military or combat training.**

 **One more thing, about that random OC teen onboard the Requiem, if you've read the original version of this story then it should be pretty straight forward who they are to you if you haven't then you'll see in the future.**

 **Anyway let me know what you thought of this ch.**


	3. Heliopolis's end

**Ok first sorry for the long delay this chapter would have been out sooner but when I was around 95% done my phone colossally fucked me over and wiped everything.**

 **So I had to start all over from scratch.**

 **Disclaimer I don't own Gundam seed.**

* * *

Eric had to admit the Earth forces ship dubbed the "Archangel." Certainly looked impressive but whether or not it was truly able to go against Zaft ships remained to be seen which was something that left the teen anxious after when one saw a drake class ship for the first time it would often become hard to imagine them being shot down given their own massive size along with all the weapons they had combined with the numerous mobile armor units they carried but in reality they mine as well have been little more than fobber before most battles even started considering how easily they tended to go down when faced with Zaft vessel and mobile suits.

That was likely the reason the Strike and the other four Gundams aside from the Hope was made. It was intended to be a means to remedy the difference in battle strength between the two sides and it made sense after all the Earth Alliance wasn't dominating the war effort the way those living on Earth assumed, in fact it might have been more accurate to say the Earth Alliance had their backs against the wall since they since the majority of individual battles ended in defeat for them so if anything Zaft was the side that was dominating it nearly unopposed.

Ramias turned to Kira and Eric. "I need you two to bring the Strike and Hope onboard."

"Right." Kira said before heading to board the Strike while Eric silently made his way to the Hope wearing a bitter expression.

'Marcus what gave you the idea that an Earth forces vessel was the best place to bring the mobile suit?' Of course the teen already knew that answer even if he was reluctant to accept it. The Archangel was the only place the Zaft impersonators wouldn't have an easy time stealing the Hope from if not destroying it.

Still the Earth Alliances would inevitably seize it from Eric and have one of their own members pilot it as soon as they discovered it was a mobile suit that could actually be piloted by a Natural and from there use to fuel their petty jealousy driven campaign to oppress or exterminate all Coordinators.

The idea that he just fought off two mobile suits and having a close brush with death simply to inadvertently provide the worse of the two sides with a weapons they shouldn't have under any circumstances filled Eric with no shortage of anger and discuss but there wasn't much of anything he could do about the situation.

'I'm sorry Marcus but you're aspirations will probably be grinded to dust here.'

Eric boarded the Hope's cockpit before putting the four seatbelts on and closing the hatch.

'At the very least I want everyone to make it out of this in one piece.'

After starting up the Hope's system and waiting a moment for the four monitors to come online Eric followed behind the Strike into the ship's hanger.

Once everyone else had got on board Ramias was greeted by two Earth Alliance officers.

One was a woman around Ramias' age with short black hair and the other was a man was blonde hair.

"Lieutenant Ramias. It's a relief to see your safe." The woman with black hair said causing Eric to wonder if she was the one he spoke briefly on the radio.

"I can say the same to you Ensign Badgiruel. It's also a relief to see the Archangel is still in one piece."

Both the Strike and Hope's hatches opened simultaneously and soon every Earth Alliance officer present save for Ramias was taken by surprise when they saw who came out.

"Will someone please explain why a couple of kids are riding around in these things? Neither one of them looks old enough to shave."

Badgiruel looked over to Ramius. "We're going to need some type of explanation. When I spoke to the pilot of that other machine I thought it was just my imagination when they sounded like their voice hadn't even deepened from their adam's apple but seeing this now I think I speak for everyone here when I say we're going to need an explanation."

"We'll as you can guess from looking at them they're residents living here on Heliopolis and as for the reason as to why they were both operating these two mobile suits circumstances had a large hand in my decision to allow the Strike to be piloted by this civilian." Ramius said tilted her head towards Kira.

"And how about the other mobile suit being piloted by a non military individual?"

"He had already boarded it by the time I found out about its existence."

"That leaves the question of how he knew about it?" Badgiruel replied.

"According to him, he found it completely by accident while fighting issued between Zaft and a group of PMCs."

Badgiruel raised an eyebrow.

"You don't honestly believe that do you?"

"I don't buy whole heartedly but I've decided to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"And did he tell you anything about who manufactured that machine? Because it couldn't have been us."

"Only that they didn't belong to Morgeneote and that the PMCs were fighting off Zaft on their behalf."

"And this kid just so happened to slip through it all and find this mobile suit in all the confusion."

"Well our other pilot did manage to stumble upon the Strike so we can't write the idea off altogether."

Badgiruel grunted in annoyance but relented none the less.

"Well regardless of how it was found it's convenient for us since we need whatever firepower we can get if we want to have any chance of getting out of this mess." The blond officer said walking forward before saluting Ramias.

"Lieutenant Mu La Flaga, seventh orbital fleet."

"Murrue Ramius, fifth special division."

"Natarle, Badgiruel, same division."

"Alright before I forget, I'd like permission to come aboard."

"Granted, but I need to know where's the rest of your division?"

"Unfortunately they're KIA. We tried to hold off the enemy when the began their attack but we never really had a chance against them. I was forced to retreat inside the colony and came aboard the Archangel."

Ramius glanced at an orange colored mobile armor with a narrow body and armed with four detachable barrel guns mounted on the over, under, starboard, and port sides of its back end as well as a main gun on it underside at the front end.

"I assume we can count on your help when we face the enemy again?" Ramias inquired.

"Yeah but even I won't be able to fight them off alone."

"I figured as much."

"So then what's our next course of action?" Natarle inquired.

"I think you might want to ask our Lieutenant over here."

Ramias was caught off guard. "You can't be serious."

"I may have seniority but I don't know the first thing about this ship, besides I'll be able to do a lot more out in the field than from the bridge."

Ramias sighed in defeat. She may have wanted to argue otherwise but what Mu just said was true in spite of however reluctant she may have been to admit it.

"Alright I'll need some time to think things over."

"Fair enough but try not to stall too much, Zaft might of been driven back for now but it's only a matter of time before they come back and try to destroy this ship along with the Strike and...what's this other unit called?"

"The Hope according to the one who piloted it."

"I see, speaking of which now that we got our introductions between eachother out of the way how about finding out who the pilots the Strike and Hope are." Mu suggested turning towards the two civilian teen pilots.

"Of course. The one who piloted the Strike on my behalf is Kira Yamato."

"Then I take that other is the one had accessed our private channel." Badgiruel vocally deduced referring to the Hope's current pilot.

"Yes his name's Eric Raglan."

"Eric. So you have any idea how much ammo is left on this thing?" Mu inquired.

"The gun attached to its shield is out along with the ones in its head. I lost both knives during the fight and the guns on top of its shoulder run on the battery's power supply. It also had something called a Beam saber but according to the weapons monitor it was only 80 percent complete."

Murdoch smirked. "If that's the case we can take care of the remaining twenty in about fifteen minutes."

"You might have to make it ten." Mu mused.

"It should be doable provided the beam saber is the same as the ones the G weapons we built."

"Good." Mu turned to the two teen pilots. "I know this might sound a bit insensitive but I feel it needs to asked considering the two of you were both piloting mobile suits."

Both Kira and Eric tensed up. "You're both Coordinators aren't you?"

A moment afterwards every officer armed with a rifle level their weapons at the two teens before Tolle and Callahan had stepped in front of them protectively.

"Hold up it shouldn't matter if whether they're naturals or Coordinators. Neither of them are a part of Zaft's military or want anything to do with this war. They're civilians of this colony which is part of a Neutral territory."

"Sorry I wasn't meaning to imply they were the enemy it's just there's no way they could have piloted the Strike or this other mobile suit if they were fellow Naturals considering that even the officers specially trained to pilot the G weapons could barely get them to move during simulations but I kind of felt the need to confirm it."

Ramius turned her attention to the armed officers. "Lower your weapons, these two are not our enemies."

The armed officers looked at eachother unsure of weather to actually comply or not since the two teens (in the officors' eyes) were a part of the enemy's group, their altered genes painted a clear enough pitcher of that.

"That's an order!" This time the officers complied reluctantly.

With most of the tension in the air now dissipated thanks to Ramuis' efforts Kira worked up the nerve to answered Mu La Flaga's previous question.

"If you really must know yes I am a Coordinator."

Mu turned to Eric. "I take it that it's safe to assume the same thing with you?"

"Actually no. I'm a Natural."

Mu was left speechless as well as completely dumbfounded unsure of if he heard Eric's reply correctly. Ramias and Badgriuel's eyes were wide as saucers.

Everyone as affiliated with the Earth Alliance present all had similar reactions unable to believe what they had heard. A Natural piloting a mobile suit was something they could scarcely swallow.

The idea in and of itself wasn't one that they disliked it was just hard to come to terms with it actually being possible. As Mu previously said said even the EA members trained to pilot the Strike and stolen G weapons could barely get them to move let alone causally walk them aboard the Archangel without so much as stumbling.

The reason for this dilemma is because regardless of the fact that the mobile suits and their armaments had been constructed the units lacked an OS that could allow a Natural to effectively pilot them.

If what Eric said was indeed true that would mean that not only did an unknown party manage to replicate the EA's design but surpassed their progressed essentially reaching the end stage the EA was aiming for. In other words the Hope made the first step of EA's hope of leveling the playing field a reality.

It seemed too good to be true but regardless of how it happened it was a blessing no member of the Archangel's crew could even consider overlooking.

"In that case we'll need to extract its data right away so we can replicate its OS." Badgiruel said.

Ramius turned to Mu La Flaga. "Do you think you're up to the task of piloting it?"

"If push comes to shove I guess."

"Alright then as of this moment you'll be the pilot of the Hope." She turned to kira. "I'm sorry to ask this of you but we need the power of the Strike also."

"Why does that mean I have to drive it? I only did the first few times because I had to but that doesn't mean I've suddenly become a soldier. None of us here want any part of your war!"

"And is that what you'll tell the enemy when they come to shoot down this ship?" Mu inquired.

Kira stood silently unable to answer that particular question.

"Right now you and I are the only ones that can protect this ship."

With the conversation Ramius then order the officers to show the teens to the ship's sleeping quarters.

Eric silently stared bitterly at the floor. He had no desire to fight, he was still shaken up from the previous skirmish he had with Bernard but even so he hated the idea of the Hope being used for something a fault as the Earth Alliance's groundless campaign against those who simply wanted to live as human beings under complete spurious claims of protecting the earth.

Honestly he couldn't imagine a worse cause for the Hope to be used towards.

Sadly there wasn't anything he could do about now that he had brought the Hope aboard the Archangel. Now that he thought about it Eric began to wonder why Marcus had ever instructed to bring the Hope here. Surely he had to know it would be taken from him by the EA, while keeping out of the hands of the Zaft impersonators was important he must have known this was not a better alternative.

XXXXX

"Are you ready Greyson?" Rooks asked the teen pilot who lacked a normal flight suit

"That should go without saying."

"I'm glad to hear it but I'd prefer for you not to underestimate your target. While the pilot may be some random civilian the machine they have has proven to have enough prowess to make up for whatever lack of skill its pilot may have."

"I'm aware from what we've gathered from our group's skirmish with the target and Zaft fight with the Strike the Earth Alliance's mobile suits and the target have special phase shift armor which renders any weapon we and Zaft have used thus far."

"The perhaps more destructive weapons might be in order to complete this mission."

"Not necessarily."

Rooks raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Another discovery we've made thanks to our insider aboard the Gamow sending us a copy of the G weapon data from the acquired mobile suits combined with what little data we acquired on our target from the computers of the facility that wasn't wiped we can say without a doubt that our target is based off the design of the other units constructed here."

"Yes I've been made aware of this."

"Then you also know that they have an ultracompact battery as their power source."

"As does any mobile suit."

"Yes and as it turns out the suits have to constantly use power to maintain their phase shift forms as well as use certain weapons on them."

"So you plan on provoking the target into using the weaponry in question in draining their power source."

"I might not necessarily have to."

"What do you mean?"

"It may turn out that there's another limitation to has, being that while the armor might nullify any damage from a heavy sword or machine gun the power consumption spikes whenever the armor takes a direct hit in order to do so. This is just a theory at this point since Zaft hasn't deployed the mobile suits they've captured yet to prove or disprove it."

"I doubt they'll use those suits anytime soon since the capture mobile suit are still experimental."

"They may not have a choice. With the way things are going they may not have a choice."

"True if their backs are somehow pushed against the corner by the power of the unit they failed to capture or our target then they may have no choice but to rely on the power of the captured to counter them but you shouldn't count on it happening here. Odds are Rau Le Creuset will simply have the remaining GINN use a different set of weapons in hopes they have more of an affect."

"Then I'll just have to pin my hopes on my theory or fight a drawn out battle."

"It'll be fun watching your little ass fail." Exclaimed another voice causing the two to turn and see Bernard glaring at Greyson.

"You ran your mouth a bit before but you're not gonna be in a position to talk shit much longer."

"Even if my mission ends in failure I'll make sure my mobile suit isn't disabled."

Bernard's eyes narrowed at the indirect retort.

Seeing that this conversation was about to simply head in the direction of a pointless argument Rooks decided to intervene.

"Enough, this is not the time for you two to fight we still have a mission to carry out. Greyson be ready to launch when the time comes."

"Understood." The teen replied walking away whilst Bernard simply glared at his back.

'Act cocky while you can you little son of a bitch because once you fail I'll be the one who's gonna one up you while your sorry ass is benched.'

XXXXX

"How the hell are the Natural's putting up this much of a fight?" Demanded Yzak who was annoyed with the fact that the enemy wasn't going down as easily as he assumed when the mission first commenced.

"Creatures often become the most dangerous when their backs are against the corner." The masked Commander replied

"Are you serious? These are the Naturals we're talking about, they're beneath us in every aspect."

"That may be but we mustn't underestimate them lest we want to have the rug swept out from under us."

Yzak rolled his eyes in response, finding the very idea of that notion to be ridiculous.

The Captain grimaced, realizing that the operation had become much more dangerous since the enemy was relying on the two mobile suits they still had in their possession and the units in question had certainly proven to have unbelievable prowess if the loss of two GINNs and damage to two CGUEs was anything to go by. "Be that as it may we can't simply allow the enemy to keep possession of the remaining two mobile suits."

"Which is why we'll be resorting to drastic measures to lower the curtain here and now while we have the chance."

"Commander what are you proposing?"

"Aside from utilizing all our remaining units I'm going to be authorizing weapons configuration D."

"But Commander that configuration is used primarily for demolishing enemy bases. Do you really think we'll need to go that far."

"Considering what's happened so far combined with the fact that the enemy has their backs against the wall it's more than a little safe to assume that they'll use the two mobile suits again and considering any other weapons we've used thus far have proven to be inadequate I feel that at this point we don't really have the luxury of a choice."

"I see your point." The Captain turned to the Zaft pilots. "Prepare for the next sortie we'll be using weapons configuration D notify the Salvation."

"Sir please let me join the sortie." An unexpected voice said.

The sudden request much to the surprise of everyone present came from Athrun of all people.

"But you don't have a mobile suit." Came the reply of the commander causing the Bluenette the silently grimace which didn't go unnoticed by the ship's Captain.

"You've already completed a crucial enough mission capturing one of the Earth Alliance's mobile suits. Leave the rest to our GINN pilots they have more to prove."

With that the Captain turned his attention to the Commander.

"It'll take around forty five minutes for the mechanics to refit our remaining GINNs."

"That's fine the enemy isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, even with the mobile suit we didn't acquire and the other one we never gained any knowledge of they can't afford to be reckless so they're not going to do something as risky as trying to escape blindly."

"Makes sense."

"Then let's focus on making sure out preparations are done correctly."

"Sir what about us?" Yzak suddenly inquired. Like Athrun Joule wanted to join in on the assault. Unlike the latter however his motivation lied only with his desire to add to the Natural body count.

"As I've informed Athrun your team has already completed a crucial mission. Leave it to the others."

The Zaft pilot known as Miguel sent Yzak a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we'll make sure to show the Naturals just how outclassed they truly are."

"I'll be holding you to that."

"I aim to please." With that Miguel and the rest of the Zaft pilot left the ship's bridge.

"Captain how many mobile suits does our assault force have in all for this sortie?" Rua La Cruset inquired.

"Including what the Salvation has I'd say five including a CGUE."

"I see. Make sure the Salvation knows to send out its pilots at the same time we have ours sortie."

"Yes sir."

XXXXX

"I can't believe Kira and Eric can both rest at a time like this." Kuzzy mused in one of the rooms where he, Sai, Mirriallia, Tolle, and Callahan were all staying in while the other two teens that he mentioned were fast asleep in the next room over.

"Both of them have been through a lot." Mirriallia replied.

Tolle wore a solemn expression. "Yeah and it doesn't help that Kira will have to go out and fight again."

Kuzzy shrugged. "You know I've suspected for a while that Kira was a Coordinator but I wasn't sure until now."

"Kuzzy!" Mirriallia exclaimed.

"He's always been different from the rest of us I mean he managed to pilot that Mobile suit when even military officers trained to couldn't even though he couldn't have had any prior knowledge of it; I mean Coordinators can do all these mind blowing things that people like us can only dream of and yet for them it's just "a little hard". You gotta wonder does the Earth Alliance really have a chance against people like that?"

"Can't really be sure. Everyone thought they'd win the war easily because they had numbers on their side the entire world saw how that played out." Tolle replied.

"Yeah and there's one more thing that's bugging me." Kuzzy said before turning his gaze in Callahan's direction.

"Is Eric really your brother?"

Mirriallia shot Kuzzy a brief glare. "Do you realize how rude that sounds?"

"Sorry, it's just Eric and Callahan don't look anything alike."

As much as Mirriallia wanted to refute that she couldn't Callahan looked like a typical causain male and had spiky hair whereas Eric had the appearance of an african male even if his skin was a fairly light tan tone color rather than dark brown with black curly hair unless the two boys were born from different mothers there was realistically no way they could be related by blood.

Callahan sighed. "To tell you the truth he's really not my brother. The truth is my dad adopted him eleven years ago."

Sai raised an eyebrow.

"What prompted your father to do such a thing? I'm not meaning to sound like a critic but people don't usually do something like that without a major reason behind it."

"He never really told me. He just did it around a year after my mom left us."

"You never thought to ask him?"

"At the time I was too caught up in being sad that my mom up and went somewhere without saying anything so when he brought Eric home I was just happy to have a big brother and new family member and simply assumed my mom's decision to leave us was the reason my dad bought Eric home."

"I see sorry to hear about your mom."

"It's fine having Eric around made me feel a lot better as time went on." Callahan shifted his gaze. "But kuzzy where are you trying to go with this?"

"Just that like Kira I always felt Eric was also different from the rest of us."

"I can assure you he's not a Coordinator."

"That's not what I meant."

"Then just what exactly do you mean?"

"Well even though he's a Natural like us he still seems able to pull off feats a normal person could only dream of."

"Just how is that?"

"Well to start how in the world could he have piloted that other mobile suit."

"Mu said it was because it had an OS that made it possible for a Natural to pilot it." Mirriallia replied.

"Yeah but like Kira he couldn't have had any prior knowledge so how was he able to do that."

Tolle shrugged. "I just figured that he winged it."

"Yeah but I don't think that should be possible. How could he have figured that mobile suit's controls. It might make sense for Kira do be able to do it but Eric's a different story."

"Like Mirriallia said the machine Eric has can be piloted by a natural, any of us could probably figure it out if we were given enough time."

"Maybe but I don't think any of us would be able to do in the heat of the moment and instantly become good enough to fight off two Zaft mobile suits like Eric did. If it were one of us in that mobile suit we'd need over an hour at the very least to get a feel for it without someone showing us how to do it and just fighting off a Zaft mobile suit would be a whole other story nevermind two of them."

As much as everyone present would have liked to deny Kuzzy's opinion they really couldn't however...

"Whatever the reason Eric was able to do what he did like Kira he's still our friend." Sai replied immediately earning verbal agreement from Mirriallia.

"Yeah both he and Kira are our cherished friends."

"Well speaking of your cherished friends we need to have a word with one of them." Sounded an oddly irritated Mu La Flaga appearing seemingly out of the blue.

"What's wrong?"

"Your friend who brought the Hope aboard withheld some rather crucial information about the machine that's about to get this entire ship blown to oblivion from the inside!"

Kuzzy's eyes widened in horror. "Y-you can't be serious!"

"Do I look like I'm kidding? That machine your friend had found turned out to have a timed self detonation switch designed to go off if anyone who doesn't have the biometric signature registered tries to operate it. Now where is he?"

"Just in the next room over." Answered Tolle.

Mu La Flaga wasted no time in heading into the room where he saw Eric laying on his side in the bed across from the one Kira occupied before grabbed ahold of his shoulder before shook him awake.

"Wh-what's going on." Eric inquired confused.

"You need to come with me. Now!" Mu declared grabbing a firm hold of Eric's arm before yanking him out if his temporary bed and pulling him out of the room.

"Wait a minute. Where are we going?!" Eric demanded

"To the hanger bay for you to deactivate the self destruct on the Hope."

"Self destruct?"

"Are you really gonna act like you don't know- uggh there's no time just come on."

Within another minute or two and practically jogging Mu arrived at the Archangel's hanger with Eric in toe.

"Ok can someone please tell me what's going on?!" Eric exclaimed as Mu pulled him up the catwalk whilst Murdoch shot him a glare.

"You know this little stunt you're trying to pull killing all of us is pretty fucked up."

Eric's confusion only increased upon hearing this. "What makes you think I'm trying to kill you?"

Before Murdoch could attempt to answer Mu had already shoved Eric into the opened cockpit of the Hope.

"Take a look for yourself."

"What exactly do you want me to look a..." Eric stopped short of finishing his sentence whilst his eyes became wide with a mixture of horror and shock.

In the biometric panel it showed a time current at 06:23 and counting down at the top of the screen beneath that was small text that said "until self detonation."

'Was this what Mu meant?!' Eric thought before glancing just below the text to see a flashing hand and then at the button of the screen where it read "awaiting correct biometric signature for deactivation."

Immediately Eric pressed his hand against the flashing hand sign before the time stopped counting down and soon was replaced with new text that read "self detonation deactivate and reset."

The teen sighed before fixing his haze on Mu La Flaga. "Alright the self detonation is deactivated."

"Good. But that still begs the obvious question."

Eric found himself unsure of how to respond.

"Why didn't you tell us about that little feature, were you trying to get everyone on this ship killed?!"

"No I didn't even know this mobile had a self detonation set up this way."

Mu La Flaga raised an eyebrow studying Eric's expression.

"You mean to say you were seriously in the dark about this?"

"Yeah. I piloted the thing but I haven't had a chance to figure what every little thing does."

The mobile armor pilot sighed. "Alright, anyway thanks for deactivating it."

Murdoch looked dumbfounded at how things just developed. "Hold up are you actually believing this kid."

"Yeah he has an honest expression and back when I told him about the time detonation on this mobile suit he seemed legitimately confused."

Murdoch scratched the back of his head in slight uncertainty "If you say so."

At that moment both Ramias and Badgriuel stormed in the hanger before they began rapidly coming up the catwalk.

"Lieutenant La Flaga what's this about a self detonation on the Hope?" Ramias demanded.

"The problem's already been solved though it looks like we'll have to cancel our previous arrangement."

Badgriuel raised an eyebrow. "What exactly do you mean and why is this boy in the cockpit of the machine? We already decided you were going to pilot it going forward."

"Like I said thanks to its self detonation I can't really do that."

"Lieutenant you're going to need to explain from the beginning. All the mechanics told us was that the Hope was about to self detonate and now your telling us its been solved." Ramias stated.

Mu La Flaga proceeded to explain that when the mechanic attempted to extract the Hope's data most of it was blocked but they did confirm it indeed have an OS that allowed a Natural to pilot it.

After the Mechanics extracted the data to the OS's general makeup Mu preceded to try and start up the mobile suit's systems but hit a snag when it asked for a biometric signature. When the Lieutenant tried to put his own in the reader immediately shown text reading "unregistered signature, initiating anti theft measures" and began a 10 minute countdown.

From there Mu was forced to quickly find Eric and have him deactivate the self destruction mechanism on the Hope Gundam.

"If that's the case all we need to do is have him undo the fail safe and put him in the brig." Badgiruel spat.

"Hate to reign of your parade but it looks like we won't be able to do that. The kid didn't even know the mobile suit had that little feature until I brought him here to deactivate it so I highly doubt he knows how to disarm it."

"You mean to tell me it just so happens to be there and this kid has nothing to do with it."

"From the looks of it."

"And you don't find that to be an odd coincidence."

"Until a little while ago I found the idea of this machine actually having an OS that's simplified a little too good to be true, especially considering the ones we made are nowhere near the point of completion but low and behold it indeed had one. Besides that other kid named Kira Yamato only stumbled upon the Strike by luck and it was only by chance he was a Coordinator that wasn't affiliated with Zaft and was able to pilot it. If you ask me there's been more than a few odd coincidences today.

"That doesn't explain this kid's Biometric signature is registered." Badgriuel said sending a glare in Eric's direction.

"I registered it when I got in the cockpit of the Hope for the first time." Eric retorted.

"Wouldn't that mean you had a chance to set up the self detonation sequence?"

"No Zaft was around so I would have never had time to even if I wanted to."

"And yet you somehow had enough time go register your biometric signature."

"All I had to do to press my hand against the panel and the Hope's systems took care of anything else."

"Meaning the Hope's systems must have set the detonation up without you having to do anything or even know about it." Mu mused much to Badgriuel's outrage.

"And just why in the world would anyone design it that way?"

"Probably to ensure no one else but whoever the intended pilot was could operate it. The measure while a little on the extreme side is a good way to prevent the machine's theft."

"But that means we won't be able to rely on its power."

"Not necessarily." Mu replied earning a raised from Badgiruel.

"What do you mean? If that fail safe keeps you or any other officer from operating how in the world are we supposed to utilize it?"

"By having the only person who has the biometric signature registered in the machine's system pilot it."

Badgriuel's expression became one of pure incredulity. "You can't seriously consider having a civilian behind the controls of a mobile suit that shares the same design as the GAT series, it's bad enough having one inside the Strike!"

"I don't think we have much of a choice at this point. Besides the kid managed to bring the thing on the Archangel so it's not like he lacks the ability to use the Hope effectively."

"With all due respect walking the machine in this ship's hanger is one thing but fighting with it is another."

"Well I can vouch that he was definitely involved in combat when the fighting was taking place within the colony." Ramias said upon interjecting.

"Did you witness it?"

"Yes while I was inside the Strike with Kira Yamato we both caught glimpses of Eric Raglan fighting a GINN and even a CGUE."

Upon hearing this Mu La Flaga's eyes widened considerably in surprise.

"Wait you went into combat with a CGUE?!"

"Yeah it attacked me after I took out the GINN I barely managed to drive it off."

"I see." Mu La Flaga considered the possibility that it might have been Rau Le Creuset he was fighting after all the Lieutenant did sense his presence faintly. Still if it was the Zaft Commander Mu would have been a lot happier if Eric had managed to shoot him down outright. Still at the very least it meant one less enemy to worry about.

"Anyway we'll need you to be ready to launch in the Hope when the time comes you ought to get whatever rest you can in the meantime."

Badgiruel grunted before turning her gaze to the unofficial captain. "Do you agree with this Ramias"?

"As much as it might go against any type of protocol we don't have a choice but to go with Mu La Flaga's suggestion and have Eric Raglan pilot the Hope."

Ramias turned to the mechanics. "Are you at least able to reload any of its weapons?"

"Yeah we're able to tinker with the weapons as much as we need to if the situation calls for it refit this thing with new armaments, we were actually in the middle of completing construction for its beam saber and giving it a new pair of knives." Murdoch replied.

"Good. While you're at it, I'd like you to give it one of the spare beam rifles for the Strike."

XXXXX

Upon returning to the room where he and Kira were staying during their time aboard the ship Eric let himself fall of the bed he was using before and simply stared at the ceiling.

After getting over the initial shock of finding out the Hope's self destruct feature was set to keep anyone didn't have to biometric signature registered from ever operating as well as near imprisonment it dawn on him just how significant it was.

Back when he gained knowledge of how to pilot Eric had also gleaned how to activate the self detonation manually but he didn't have any knowledge about failsafe. He wondered what the reason for it was before he realized the knowledge he was given by Marcus only pertained specifically to how to pilot it, beyond that Eric still knew nothing about the mobile suit.

In spite of all that it was ultimately thanks to that fail safe no one could pilot the Gundam no one aside from Eric himself.

Knowing this a good part of Eric was glad since it meant there was a chance to ensure the Hope could be used for something more justifiable than anything the EA would ever aim for, something that could be counted as using it towards Marcus' hopes for the entirety of the Earth sphere however in spite of that he couldn't actually bring himself to smile.

Situations, sides, and scenario tended to usually have pros and cons and this was no different. While his mind may have initially went over the pros there were undoubtedly cons. One of which was that he'd have to fight again risking his own life as well as taking the lives of others in order to survive and protect his friends and family. Another was that this situation would likely garner him the attention of the hire ups in the higher ups who'd more than likely want to get him under their thumb ensure he'd use the Hope's power to their ends and if the situation turned in that direction then he may have just been better off manually using the self detonation to destroy the Hope right then and there.

Eric's expression became rather bitter once it sunk in that even though the Hope Gundam would remain in his possession (at least as far as piloting it went) for the time being simply protecting his friends here and now might be the most he can really do.

groaning in frustration Eric turned on his side. 'Marcus was coming to this ship really the best option?'

Suddenly the ship's alarm went off gaining Eric's attention and waking Kira. "Wh-what's going on?!"

Eric's eyes narrowed. "Probably another attack from Zaft."

Kira's eyes widen in horror. "Please tell me your joking!"

"There'd be no other reason for the alarms to be blaring like this."

"I really Hope you're wrong about this."

"Unfortunately he's not." The two teens turned to see Mu La Flaga.

Kira grimace. "So we really have to fight?"

"We already went over this back in the hanger though it looks like your friend here will be fighting too."

"Eric? But I thought Ramias decided to have you pilot the Hope."

"Unfortunately a few complications to that plan thanks to the Hope's self detonation arose so we can't actually follow true with that."

Kira turned to Eric. "Are you ok with this?"

"I'm not eager to shoot anyone but this is the only we can protect the others."

The young Coordinator sighed at being unable to refute that claim. Before he began heading towards the ship's hanger with Eric and Mu following close behind.

XXXXX

Onboard the Gammow the three GINNs were all launching as per Rau Le Creuset's orders.

Unbeknownst to them however the captured Aegis was right behind them.

Athrun knew his actions would result in disciplinary actions later especially since the Commander had made it abundantly clear he had no intention of letting him or the other Saft reds join in on the attack against the EA new legged ship.

But even so Athrun needed to know for sure if the civilian he had ran into at the facility where the Aegis and the other mobile suit were being kept was really his childhood friend.

If it was truly Kira Yamato.

Soon the Zaft find out. 'Kira please don't turn out to be piloting that other machine!'

As the Aegis was loading onto the ship's catapult the mechanics finally took notice of what was happening and scrambled to contact the bridge.

XXXXX

"Why are you contacting us now of all times? We're about to begin our assault!" Exclaimed the captain annoyed at the mechanics suddenly hailing the bridge.

"I'm sorry but that's just the thing."

"Explain."

"It's the Aegis. It's launched with the attack team."

"What? That can't be right, Zala was told specifically to stay onboard the ship!"

One of the Crewman onboard the ship spoke up. "Sir we've confirmed that the Aegis has indeed launched."

"Then recall it now!"

The masked Commander simply grinned at the sight "Actually it might be best to simply let him go."

The Captain stared at him with a confused expression. "Are you sure? Your initial orders were for him not to head out. "

"Yes but there's no guarantee the weapons the GINNs are currently fitted with will be effective and if that turns out to be the case relying on one of the Mobile suits we've taken might be our only viable option."

"I see."

"That being said I will want an explanation for why Athrun disobeyed my orders once this is over."

XXXXX

Inside the Hope's cockpit Eric pressed his hand against the Biometric panel and waited for it the scan his hand print.

The process barely took a full minute before the sounds of the inner systems could be heard and all four monitors in the cockpit came on showing the outside.

Just before Eric could begin walking the Hope to the Catapult he found himself being hailed by Mu La Flaga.

"I almost forgot to tell you before but the mechanics had taken the liberty of reloading your machine's weapons as well as adding some new ones."

"I noticed the beam rifle when we first entered the hanger."

"Yeah but what you likely didn't notice was that they also completed your mobile suit's Beam saber so you'll be better equipped for close quarters combat."

"It'll definitely help."

"Good to hear." Mu said before cutting the connection. Afterwords Eric walked over to the catapult where he loaded the Hope and arched it knees so it was couching before the hatch at the end of the Archangel's leg began to open.

After taking a deep breath Eric steeled himself for what was about to happen as soon as he left the ship. "Eric Raglan Hope launching."

The Gundam was flung forward and took to the air before Eric activated its phase shift armor whilst the Strike now equipped with a different pack consisting of an anti ship sword. Extra armor along its left forearm which could function as a small shield and had a rocket propelled anchor claw at its front portion.

Another armor piece had been added to the Strike's left shoulder which housed a beam boomerang.

Overall it seemed like the Strike was now more equipped for close combat.

Eric simply figured that it was a measure to prevent further damage to the colony and on that same note he was also grateful for the newly added beam rifle the Hope was now armed with. While it wasn't ideal for minimizing damage to the colony it didn't possess that level of fire power of the Hope twin railguns there was still a sense of relief to be found.

Using the Hope's secondary cameras Eric was soon confronted with the sight of four GINN and a CGUE up ahead heading for him and Kira however much to his shock along with the mobile suits already present was who of the stolen units now within Zaft possession.

It had mostly red coloration save for the upper sections of its chest on the left and right sides which were black and a light grey mouth plate. The only Armaments it appeared to have at the moment were a beam rifle and shield but Eric wasn't going to let his guard down the chance that it had other weapons stored somewhere within its armor was extremely high.

The GINN all appeared to have either a set of missile launcher or heavy Ion cannons. Each of the had an additional set of missile launchers mounted to their legs.

One had to wonder if Zaft had lost their minds over the course of their attack on the colony or simply stopped caring if the colony sustained any major damage at.

The set weapons they were currently armed with certainly didn't help matters since they were naturally destructive by nature to the point of demolition surely Zaft had to realize this. Then again the was here also with a new warship as well as the Strike which os what garnerd the other sides attention to begin with so it might out have been inaccurate to say that Zaft actions were being provoked, it wasn't as if the Earth Alliance didn't already have a history of causing the war to spread to areas where the people didn't want to have any involvement.

'Is there anything low level the Earth Alliance won't stoop to?' Eric thought before one of his secondary camera's picked up on the Mu La Flaga mobile armor known as the Mobius Zero.

"We should try focus of the GINNs, once they've been shot down the enemy should retreat."

"But what about the Aegis?" Kira inquired.

"All I can tell is that it's the enemy's now. While it would probably benefit us to take it out here and now that'll be easier said than done."

"Got it." Came Eric's swifty reply before he noticed the CGUE suddenly charge ahead with the Aegis following close behind. He tensed and waited to see who each mobile suit in question they would target but soon got the when the CGUE fired on him with its assault rifle before the Aegis began circling around to his left side and fired at him also.

Eric brought up his shield to block the shot from the Aegis before the CGUE swifted to its heavy sword whilst closing in on him before flying by him hitting the Hope in the abdomen with its blade in the process.

Eric felt the cockpit vibrate violently as he before he looked up in time to see the Aegis fire at him once more which he flew to the side to evade before he attempted to return fire only for the CGUE to rush him from behind before striking the Hope with its heavy sword.

Eric grunted in frustration before the Aegis fired another beam at him which he evaded.

The breathing room didn't last however as the CGUE once again made beeline from the Hope bring its sword overhead. Eric raised his shield and block the attack.

Once the blade made contact with the shield both Armaments locked and within a few short moments the CGUE increased its throttle back the Hope back and into the colony wall.

Eric found himself pinned in place for a few seconds before the Zaft mobile suit suddenly back off and began rapidly ascending confusing the teen and leaving him to momentarily question the CGUE's actions

The answer came very quickly when the CGUE had ascended enough for Eric to catch sight of the Aegis with its rifle aimed trained on him.

"Shit!" Eric increased throttle to the Hope's thruster propelling the machine to side and barely avoid a shot that would have otherwise his him directly in the cockpit.

Rather than immediately attempting to return fire Eric turned his attention to the CGUE to see that it was once again headed right for him with its sword at the ready.

Eric immediately began trying to pull away from the enemy unit for the sake of earning some semblance of breathing room but the CGUE followed after him in hot pursuit before switching to its rifle and firing at the Hope.

Upon finding himself being pelted with bullets the teen pilot growled in frustration.

"Dammit! Get off my back!" Eric spun the Hope around to take aim at the CGUE only for it to throw its weapon at him prompting him to use his shield to block the makeshift projectile.

As soon as Eric lowered his shield however he his greeted to the sight of the CGUE rapidly closing in on him without any weapons in hand leading the civilian pilot to believe the enemy might have simply intended to attack him with their mobile suit's bare hands.

That assumption was immediately thrown to the wind when the CGUE did something even more confusing and grabbed ahold of both of the Hope's forearms. "What the hell?!"

The bafflement Hope's pilot was only increased further when the CGUE increased its throttle to pull the Hope to a higher altitude before simply holding it where it was.

Eric was left speechless as he frantically tried to figure what the other pilot was aiming for. As things stood the most they had achieved was a stalemate, while they may have had both of the Hope's arms pinned they themselves couldn't use any of their own weapons to attack. Trying to crush the Hope's forearms with brute strength from their own Mobile suit was out of the question thanks to the Hope'd phase shift armor.

Suddenly one of the Hope's secondary cameras showed him an image of the Aegis heading his way with its rifle aimed at him then it finally dawned on him what the CGUE pilots aim was.

They were trying to provide the Aegis with an opening to shoot down the Hope in a single shot.

"Arrgghh LET GO!" Acting quickly Eric utilized the only weapon we could that didn't require the use of the Hope's hands or run the risk of blowing a hole in the colony's outer walls, the CIWs.

Upon firing them Eric immediately attempt to focus on the only weak spot that he could get to, the CGUE's monoeye sensor. While the shots didn't take out the sensor whoever the pilot of the Zaft mobile was clearly wasn't one to take excessive risks and as such the bullets did have the other effect Eric was aiming for as the CGUE let go just in time for him to bring his shield in front of him take aim his rifle before exchanging shots with the approaching Aegis.

Both opponents either blocked the shots directed at them or dodged them completely as the Aegis flew by the Hope.

"I need a little help can someone keep one of these guys off me?" Eric requested upon hailing both the Mobius Zero and Strike.

"I know facing two enemies simultaneously isn't easy but me and Kira are caught up with opponents of our own and even the Archangel's tied up with defending itself at at the moment. So you need to bear with it for now." Came Mu La Flaga's voice over the radio prompting a spike of frustration from the teen pilot.

Casting a brief glance in the others' direction Eric soon found that what Mu had informed him of was indeed true Kira was type up fighting a single GINN armed with Ion cannon and Mu was facing another whilst the remaining two were attacking the Archangel from opposite sides trying to get through its defenses.

As things currently stood it was taking everything he had just keep from being shot down. It didn't help matters that Eric was also being faced with one of the stolen Gundams, out of everyone currently fighting Zaft he was the one who was the most unlucky on the draw. Both Kira and Mu had single opponents which were only GINNs, the Archangel may have been faced with two but it was well equipped to deal with multiple enemies and like with the Strike and Mobius Zero the ship was facing GINNs, Eric not only had two opponents but one of them was a CGUE which was a visible step above a GINN and the other was another Gundam which incorporated the same general design has the Hope and Strike.

Thinking one step ahead Eric aimed his shield vulcan at the CGUE which as he was expecting was heading right for him with its heavy sword in hand and fired.

The enemy mobile suit was forced to back giving Eric much needed breathing room.

Throughout the course of the fight Eric had noticed something distinctive about the way the CGUE and Aegis went about fighting him.

The CGUE would come in and attack Eric just enough to get his attention and then while he was distracted the latter would fire at him and when he tried to retaliate against the latter the former would close in for another attack and the cycle was repeated.

At a glance it looked like the two were simple taking shots at the Hope when its back was turned to them but the CGUE recent actions of trying to pin the Hope in the air made Eric realize what their true aim was. The Former was attempting to create an opening for the Aegis to take the Hope with a single shot.

Right on schedule the Aegis was aiming its rifle at Eric but he also had his own rifle trained on the stolen mobile suit and fired first forcing it to evade before it retaliated prompted Eric to pull to the side to avoid the incoming shot.

The CGUE took the opportunity to close the distance between itself and the Hope before bringing its blade down the Hope chest before following up with a kick and that sent it careening towards the colony wall amd causing the cockpit the shake violently enough the Eric's nose began bleeding out before he managed to bring the Hope to a halt.

The Aegis took the opportunity to open fire on the Hope leaving its pilot with no option to evade vai pulling to the side. Unfortunately Eric soon found the CGUE hot on his tail readying its sword for an overhead swing as it flew towards him.

Eric tried to force the unit to halt its approach via using his shield vulcan but the simply block the shots with its own shield before increase its speed. Once it was in range it brought its heavy down on the Hope before following and a second slash across its abdomen.

Eric attempted to retaliate with his CIWs but the CGUE pulled back allowing the Aegis to take over.

As the other Gundam took aim Eric pulled to the side and Aegis did the same in the opposite direction resulting in the two mobile suits circling around each other whilst exchanging rifle fire.

After he blocked a shot from the Aegis and CGUE was about to attempt another attack the latter suddenly found itself being shot from behind from multiple angles.

All three pilots wondered if EA reinforcements had arrived but that belief was soon disproved when the Mobius Zero which had separated its four gun barrels from its main body heading towards them.

Eric glanced back toward the Archangel to see if Mu La Flaga had dealt with his previous opponent but soon found they simply joined the two GINN attack the Archangel.

"Sorry for the wait I'll help get one of these guys off your back."

"But what about the GINN you were faced with."

"Well it believe or not Ramias ordered me to help you so I tried luring the GINN I was facing into the ship's firing range but it only got it to shift its attention. Still I managed untie my hands of it and it's a good thing to, the Captain all but chewed me out for initially leaving you to fight these two alone especially when one of the is one of the stolen G weapons."

"Thanks, it'll definitely make things easier."

XXXXX

Greyson grunted in annoyance at the sudden interference from the mobile armor.

Turning his attention to it Greyson readied his shield vulcan and fired but the mobile armor maneuvered out of his line of fire while resembling itself.

'I don't have time for this!' Back when he first launched his initial plan was to engage the target mobile suit with the GINN that also came from the salvation and take it down through a war of attrition but when the Aegis launched he immediately immediately decided to contact its pilot and have them assist him with his mission since their newly acquired mobile suit would undoubtedly be better equipped.

The other pilot came off as reluctant but it ultimately didn't matter, since the other pilot was essentially defying orders (at least according to one of the GINN pilots that launched from the Gamow) they weren't in any position to refuse.

Thanks to this Greyson had increased his advantage over the target. From what he had been informed of the pilot of the target mobile suit was actually just a random civilian which means they weren't properly trained however they were still able to drive Bernard off, even if he was an ego driven moran it have taken some level of skill to do so.

Knowing this Greyson was expecting some kind of struggle from the unit he was tasked to destroy weather it was still piloted by the civilian or an EA officer so it didn't come off as a surprise when the mobile suit didn't go down right then and there but the enemy unit was still somehow managing to hold out.

Greyson figured now that he had the Aegis helping him he could have it dispose of the unit much quicker then he could since he'd have to fight it through a war of attrition and wait for it's battery supply to run dry assuming his initial theory was correct.

The move he made was definitely the correct one since it had been clear who held the advantage right from the start it was just a matter of creating the opening required for the Aegis to land the blow needed to dispose of the target but now all that had been thrown to the wind by the appearance of that mobile armor.

"Athrun you're going to have to deal with the other mobile suit on your own. I need to get this mobile armor off my back."

"Roger."

With that Greyson gave his full attention to the EA unit which separated into multiple pieces consisting of it main body and four gun barrels.

'Not today.' Rather than trying to shoot down the main body Greyson turned his focus to one of the gun barrels and peppered with shots from his shield volcano destroying it. Immediately afterwards the mobile reassembled its remaining parts and rapidly pulled away. While that was happening Greyson flew to the colony ground to retrieve how previously discard machine gun.

'I was never personally intending to kill you but I'm not about to let you waste my time.' Greyson thought as he took off after the mobile armor which and swung around and was coming towards him with the intent to attempt another attack.

XXXXX

'Dammit why did you people have to come here? This is neutral territory, nobody here wants anything to do with your war!' Kira thought as he swung his anti ship sword at the opposing GINN he was currently fighting which pulled back.

The young Coordinator could only inwardly ask himself why Zaft had to attack a neutral colony. The reason that many were living there as well as the mainland of Orb was because they wanted to avoid the war altogether, why couldn't the attacking force from Zaft understand that?

It didn't help matters that the pilot of that red mobile suit might have possibly been Kira's longtime friend Athrun Zala but we had no way to confirm that since he had his hands full. Still if it actually was his friend then it would only give him even more reason to dread this entire situation since it would mean that not only was Athrun endangering the lives of his friend from Heliopolis but he was currently fighting one of them at this very moment.

Personally Kira wished he could stop the fight between the Hope and Aegis but there was nothing he could do except pray that neither Athrun nor Eric would wind up dead by the end of this.

The GINN fired a salvo of missiles from one of its legs which Kira simply pulled to the side to avoid most of save for one he was forced to use his CIWs to shoot down. The enemy GINN then took aim with both with one of its Ion cannons and fired at Kira who climbed in order to avoid incoming which hit a support cable holding the Colony's structure together.

Kira tried to retaliate using his CIWs but they only chipped the GINN's armor in a few places before running out of ammo.

"Not now!" Kira exclaimed in anger whilst the GINN fired another salvo of rockets from its other leg which the Strike's pilot was forced to dodge all of via pulling to the side before the Zaft unit followed up with a shot from one of its Ion cannons. Kira in response brought the armor on his mobile suit's left forearm using it was a shield to block the incoming blast.

Once the shot slammed into the extra armor it created a mass of smoke leaving the GINN pilot eagerly wondering if they managed to shoot down the Strike before the machine in question suddenly flew out of the smoke coming towards them rapidly with its antiship sword held in position to perform an overhead swing.

The GINN pulled back just in time to avoid being sliced in half before firing one of its Ion cannons which Kira hastily avoided.

Reaching for the Strike's left shoulder Kira drew the mobile suit's Beam boomerang which he through at the GINN that flew to the side to avoid before taking aim with its Ion cannons all the file not noticing the Beam boomerang coming back around and once again heading right for him.

Before the GINN pilot could attempt to fire at the Strike the Beam boomerang cut through its right leg severing just above the knee joint.

Kira took the opportunity to close in for another attack with his antiship sword before bringing it down on the GINN cutting all the way through it abdomen and rending the mobile suit in two.

The pilot of the opposing mobile suit could only scream in horror for the last few moments of their life before their unit's ramians exploded.

Kira grimaced at the sight before glancing in the direction of others in time to see the Archangel shoot down one of the GINNs with its Gottfried as well as the shot from the Armament blast another hole in the Colony wall.

The body of the entire colony began to shake violently before pieces of debris started to be swept up by the air rapidly escaping the various openings in Heliopolis' walls.

"Oh no!" Kira exclaimed upon realizing just how dire the situation had become. The Colony was at its limit.

The teen pilot found himself startled when the Strike suddenly started shaking rattling the cockpit.

"What's goi- wwwaaaaagggh!"

Kira's could only scream when the Strike was suddenly pulled by the air current to the outside of the colony.

XXXXX

"This is really bad." Mu La Flaga mused to himself referring to the entire situation.

He hadn't failed to notice the state Heliopolis had been reduced to thanks to the fight going on inside of it.

At the rate things were going the colony would end up tearing itself apart if it suffered anymore damage.

To make matters worse another more personal problem the Lieutenant was faced with was his current opponent. While whoever was behind its controls was not the Zaft Commander Rau Le Creuset but they were shockingly even more skilled.

Instead of simply trying to focus on the Mobius Zero's main body like past opponents did and leave themselves vulnerable to beam fire from the gun barrels they decided to shoot down the gun barrels first reducing the Mobius Zero's potency bit by bit and fire at the main body when the mobile armor reassembled itself.

As a result Mu La Flaga had lost three of detachable weapons and was forced on the defense, namely putting the better part of his effort into avoiding gun fire from the CGUE to keep from being shot down.

The fact that the side of the Mobius Zero's main body was smoking from a bullet certainly didn't do anything to improve the situation.

"At this rate, I'm gonna have to retreat."

That thought didn't particularly appeal to the ace pilot of the Earth Alliance since it possibly meant the CGUE would attack the Hope again that was still fighting with the Aegis. The problem was he didn't have much of a choice at this point, with the way things were going, it was only a matter of time before he was done in completely.

Switching to the Archangel's channel Mu sighed before hailing them. "This is Lieutenant Mu La Flaga."

"Has something come up?" Came Ramias' immediate inquiry.

"Unfortunately I'm no longer in a state to fight so I had no choice but to head back to the ship."

"Roger. Please hurry the colony's ready to tear itself apart any minute."

"On my way." Mu said heading towards the Archangel. The CGUE didn't bother to pursue and much to Mu's dismay it looked as though it was about to attack the Hope again before two sections of the colony wall behind it split apart creating a vacuum that pulled the CGUE outside the colony.

'Well that's one problem solved.' Mu thought whilst increasing his speed to make back to the Archangel before he found himself caught in the vacuum.

XXXXX

Panting heavily Eric fired at the Aegis which blocked the shot with its shield before returning fire.

Eric hastily avoided the shot whist retaliating. Glancing down at the battery meter he winst, it showed 23% percent. If the situation continued like this Eric or the Aegis if not both would run out of power soon and that wasn't the only problem.

Eric was both physically and mentally exhausted at the point to where he was struggling to keep up with the Aegis. Weather the other pilot was in a similar state or not he couldn't be very sure of only that they any type of similar state though odds were they had the advantage when it came to stamina since they were a Coordinator and Eric had already been through one fight earlier today.

Whatever the case might have been the other pilot decided to change tactics and flew toward Eric closing the distance between themselves and him leaving the Hope's pilot bewildered.

The enemy mobile suit no longer bothered firing its weapon yet at the same time it didn't bother switching it out for any type of beam saber or other type of close quarters weapon.

On top of that something even more irrational happened somewhere within Eric's mind, out of nowhere his instincts started telling him to be ready to dodge an attack from the Aegis' leg but it didn't make any sense, the limb in question had no type of weapon so to speak so the most it could be used for was kicking the Hope but that wouldn't do any real damage.

That belief was proven wrong when an amber colored beam saber suddenly ignited from the Aegis' foot before the mobile brought the limb up aiming to stab the Hope's cockpit.

Thanks to whatever that odd sense of precognition was Eric was able to promptly dodge the attack before aiming his rifle at the Aegis amd firing hitting the other Gundam in its shoulder.

Before the fight could go any further the air current created from vacuums growing ever suddenly began to pull the two mobile suits apart and towards the outside.

Eric could do little but watch as he was sucked out into the vastness of space while Heliopolis torn itself apart completely and shelters were ejected as lifeboat.

'This can't be happening!' The teen pilot yelled out in denial even as the truth of the situation was laid out in front of him; the colony of Heliopolis was destroyed.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap. God this chapter took forever to right. It didn't help that my phone fucked me over forcing me to start all over from scratch but I finally got the thing out.**

 **Beyond please. Follow, Favorite, and review. I'm off to work on other things story wise**.


	4. Clash with the stolen Gundams

**Alright here's the fourth chapter of Hopeful path (rewrite).**

 **I recently got a new phone that incidentally came with a writing app that actually has a working spell check so I went back and corrected the shit load of grammar mistakes in the previous chapter so people can actually enjoy reading it now.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own gundam seed**

* * *

Groaning a bit Eric opened his eyes to find himself in a rather unfamiliar space. Upon attempting to move he discovered he was strapped to a metal seat with belts going over both of his shoulders and waist.

"Wh-what is this-wait where am I?!" Looking around and spotting various levers, buttons, peddles, switches, and most notably the four monitors in to either side as well of above and in front of him which revealed two shocking realizations.

The first that he was in some kind of cockpit which he would have immediately went about trying to figure out how to open so he could get out if not for the second realization pertaining to what the monitors all showed.

All the monitors displayed two things that really were not a welcome sight by any means both being that first whatever kind machine Eric was inside of was currently in the vast vacuum of space meaning he couldn't exit the cockpit without suffocating and second that in front of the machine was what looked to be the ruins of a colony.

Before Eric could question the scenery in front of him his memory of everything that had previously transpired had came back to him in a single instant from when Zaft began its attack on the colony of Heliopolis to when Marcus decided to take a shot meant for him and allow him to pilot the Hope and all the fighting that had ensued thereafter leading to Heliopolis' destruction.

The teen grimaced and balled his fist before slamming them against the front monitor before his thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly heard a voice over the radio.

"This is the Archangel, come in." Judging from the sound it was safe to assume Badgiruel was the one speaking.

"Eric Raglan if you can hear me then respond."

"I'm here."

"Is that Hope undamaged?"

"Yes."

"Are you able to get back to the Archangel?"

Eric glanced at his rader and saw the Archangel's general location. From the looks of it he'd have no choice but to circle around the remains of the colony a bit before he'd reach the ship which wasn't exactly a comforting thought since he didn't know where the enemy was meaning there was a distinct possibility that he might run into them on the way to the Archangel. While that scenario was one the civilian pilot wished to avoid for obvious reasons the ultimatum which basically amounted to being stranded in space until death took him wasn't any better. "Yes, but it might take a minute or so."

"Make the trip back short. We need to leave this sector before the enemy finds us. The Strike's already returning so we're only waiting on you."

"Understood."

XXXXX

"It looks like I'm not the only to fuck up." Bernard mused smugly.

"I'd prefer for you not to get in a pointless spout with Greyson when we'll need to report this so I'll ask you to refrain from provoking any type of exchange in the form of insults." Rooks replied.

"Oh alright, I'm just satisfied knowing that little shit's sense of self superiority doesn't hold any merit now."

'That doesn't necessarily mean you've room to boast.' The Captain of the Requiem thought whilst Greyson exited his mobile suit.

"It seems that your mission has ended in failure." Rook stated.

"Unforeseen circumstances got in the way. Plus the pilot managed to stay in the fight long enough for the colony to be destroyed and for everyone to be separated in the vacuum of space."

"I see. We'll let those who are actually loyal to Zaft handle the search for our target unless. Barclay decides otherwise."

"Meaning we're going to report what's happened to him."

"He was adamant about wanting that mobile suit destroyed. So he'd naturally want to know the results of our mission."

"Understood."

Greyson began walking off towards the bridge of the ship with Rooks following close behind along with Bernard who wore a smirk believing that he'd finally be able to witness Grayson on the receiving end of scorn.

Upon arriving Rooks immediately informed the crewman to connect the Requiem to the location where Barclay was and the main monitor came on displaying a man wearing a uniform similar to that of a Zaft Commander but in dark grey rather than white and a more plain design save for an insignia of two swords crossed diagonally over the Earth in place of where the Zaft insignia would normally be. Their ace like the Zaft Commander Rau La Creuset's was covered by a metallic mark however theirs concealed their eyes and the entirety of their forehead leaving the back exposed save for a metal ban going around holding the mask in place revealing short cut and slightly fringy light silver hair with a visible sky blue tint.

"I assume you've already read the report?" Rooks inquired

"I've been made aware that the mobile suit has not been disposed of which I'd like to hear the details as to why and there's one more detail that left me….rather baffled."

The Captain already had a good idea of what it was. After all, even he was skeptical when he had first been informed. "It has to do with the pilot correct?"

"Yes. Considering they managed to survive against both Bernard and Greyson the idea that they are just a random civilian who was living in the colony is a bit difficult to believe."

"Several of the men we sent with Bernard vouched that it was true. The one who has most details is Bernard himself."

Barclay's gaze shifted to the pilot though the only anyone could tell was from Barclay shifting the direction his head was facing. "So could you explain how this civilian came into possession of Shirou's creation?"

"Believe or not the guy who was actually supposed to pilot it took a bullet for the civilian in question after that I was ordered to head back to my CGUE so I didn't see the kid board it personally but according to my men he managed to get in the cockpit during the end of the fighting taking place inside the facility where it was being kept."

"How do you know it was actually him inside the mobile suit personally."

"Because I hailed him over the radio and saw for myself."

"Can you tell us anything about the individual in question."

"He was an African Orb citizen in his teens from the looks of him. He didn't seem to know the intended pilot at least to my knowledge but he was actually pretty angry with me for shooting him which was weird in and of itself considering with the way he was acting you'd think the actual pilot was someone who had a close relationship with him."

A smile suddenly found its way onto Barclay"s face confusing everyone present. "I see. What would you say about his abilities as a pilot?"

"He was able to get the thing to move like it was supposed to but beyond that he's mediocre at best, the only reason he came out on top is because of the mobile suit's power."

Barclay turned his attention to Greyson. "Assuming the Earth forces didn't change the pilot out with someone they personally felt was more qualified. Would you be of the same opinion?"

"Yes however a great amount of potential exist."

"Meaning there's a distinct possibility that they'll grow stronger as time passes on if left to their own devices."

Rooks simply shrugged though he wondered if Barclay was contemplating something involving the civilian in question.

"What would you have us do in the meantime?"

"For the most part rondezuez with our main fleet and decide our next course of action from there but for the sake of keeping track of the situation with machine Shirou has built and intervening should the need ever arise I'd like a skilled pilot along with enough of the crew to remain with the Zaft forces and pursue the Earth Alliance's new ship."

Bernard smirked. "In that case I'll volunteer. That little shit piloting our target get lucky during a first skirmish but luck won't save him a second time around."

Barclay glanced at Greyson."I assume you don't have any objection?"

"None, he can even use my CGUE if that satisfies him."

Bernard raised an eyebrow. "You're really going to pass up the chance to go after that mobile suit again."

"As long as it's shot down in the end it benefits our ends, by whom its destroyed is of no importance." Greyson said leaving the bridge. "I'll be ready to depart when the main fleet is close enough."

"Tch more glory for me." Bernard declared.

"Should you personally shoot down the mobile suit then it'll certainly be a praise worthy achievement." Barclay replied.

"Don't worry I'll definitely be the who take it down." The pilot declared before leaving the bridge.

"I'm not certain if it's a good idea to encourage that man's provado, it'll likely be the death be him."

"You likely not wrong but at the very least he has his uses while he's still amongst the living. Even if his less admirable traits lead him to the abyss he might be able to ensure the machine's destruction."

"And if the pursuing Zaft forces' abilities prove to be inadequate?"

"Should that be the case." Barclay smiled. "Then I may need to step in personally."

"Will the Fulfilment be able to stand against our target or have you taken into consideration the possibility that the task proves to be beyond the mobile suit's capabilities? It's far better than any Zaft model but…."

"You're concern is understandable and to answer what you are intending to ask as it stands now the Fulfillment wouldn't make that much of a difference as things currently stand however I've seen to it that it'll be refitted with the technology that the captured mobile suits incorporate once we replicate it and that our special project concerning the loss of nuclear capabilities will be used to boost its capabilities to much higher feats."

"You sound as though you're looking forward to the possibility of relying on it."

"While potentially losing Bernard won't serve any of our interest I feel it would be quite interesting to see the performance of Shirou's machine first hand."

"I see but might there be another reason on top of that?"

"It's something Bernard mentioned about the civilian."

"And what might that be."

"The way they were drastically affected by the death of the man who was intended to pilot the target even though the two were just strangers. Wouldn't be interesting if there were more to this boy than what one would normally have the ability to perceive at first glance."

For the first time the Captain of the Requiem's facial expression showed surprise. "You believe he might be like you and Greyson?"

"At the very least the possibility exists. If Bernard shoots him down then the situation will have conveniently have been solved right then and there but should things play out differently then it might provide more personal opportunities."

"Such as?"

"Seeing the results that my abilities and that of the Fulfillment bring about."

'So you're basically hoping that if this boy's like you he'll prove to be a suitable opponent to test your prowess.' "If it's all the same to you I'll also remain here and continue to oversee the Requiem as it pursues the Earth Alliance's new war ship."

"Suit yourself."

XXXXX

Upon arriving on the Archangel Eric was greeted with a sight he didn't quite expect. The Strike was already against the wall of the hanger but what made the sight out of place was that one of the lifeboats from Heliopolis was now on board. Many of the crew including Mu, Badgiruel, and Ramias were all gathered along with the mechanical crew working to open the lifeboat.

Afterloading the Hope on the wall of the hanger Eric quickly exited the cockpit in time to hear the end of an argument between Kira and Badgiruel.

"I'm telling you the lifeboat was damaged."

"It doesn't matter. There was no reason to bring it aboard the Archangel." Badgiruel retorted.

"So leaving them out in the middle of space is better?"

"What becomes of them is for Orb to worry about."

While it was more or less impossible to tell when the confrontation started though if Eric had to guess he's assume it was right after Kira came into the hanger with the thing it was pretty obvious that Ramias was fed up with listening to it go

"That's enough. Let's just open this lifeboat and get a move on before the enemy finds us."

Both Kira and Badgiruel became silent whilst the mechanic team succeeded in opening up the lifeboat.

Immediately former residents from the demolished colony of Heliopolis came pouring out. While observing them Eric saw no one that he could recognize from his school or his home until…

"Kira is that you?!" Came a voice that brought him no joy to hear. Apparently the lifeboat had one person he knew of. Glancing in the general the voice came from the teen soon caught sight of Flay throwing herself into Kira whilst wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest inciting a noticeable blush from the young Coordinator.

"Oh uh Flay I never would have guessed you were on that lifeboat."

"Are my friends here by any chance? I got separated from them when the colony was attacked."

"I don't think so but Sai's here."

"Really?!"

At this point Eric had lost interest and was readying himself to leave when another voice called directly to him shocking the teen. "Eric?"

Turning around the civilian pilot was met with the sight of a familiar family member. Heading towards the pilot of the Hope was none other than Abram Raglan.

The man in question was in his thirties with dirty blonde colored hair wearing simple attire consisting white shirt with a brown hoodie and blue jeans.

"D-dad!" Eric exclaimed before embracing the man before him who returned the gesture. "I'm relieved you're here."

"I can say the same about you but I need to know is Callahan here."

"Yeah he and all our friends are here."

"So your entire group is on this ship, actually how did you all end up aboard this ship?"

"I...I don't even know where to begin." To simply say that was an understatement might have been putting it lightly. How in the world was he supposed to explain everything that's happened when Eric himself could still scarcely believe it hell a part of him was simply hoping that this was all just a crazy nightmare that he'd soon wake from to find himself continuing his everyday life on Heliopolis.

But the better part of him knew the reality of his and everyone else's situation. There was no longer any home to return to so simply returning to his everyday life was out of the question, especially in light of what he'd have to confess to Abram likely sooner rather than later.

"Hey kid we're gonna need you and that Yamato kid to look over your OS systems when we're done reloading both of your mobile suits' weapons." Came the voice of the chief mechanic Murdoch earning a look from confusion from Abram.

"Eric what did he mean by that? It sounded like he was implying you were piloting one of the mobile suits on board this ship!"

The teen was unable to immediately reply since this was the part he was dreading the idea of explaining the entire ordeal to Abram. How was he supposed to tell his foster father that mobile suit, odds were there was no way he could word it in a way that Abram would approve of his actions, especially when he had not only risked his life but taken life as well.

"Dad let's head to the living quarters there's a lot to talk about."

"I would figure that if you're suddenly getting directly involved in this war."

Before the two began to leave Eric finally turned to address Murdoch. "I'll look at the Hope's OS in a little while."

"I'll be holding you to that." The chief mechanic replied.

XXXXX

"So now that Greyson and a fair number of our crew are gone when are we going after the mobile suit we came here to take out?" Bernard demanded inciting a groan of annoyance from Rooks.

"As soon as Rau La Creuset decides how he wants us along with the Gamow and Vessalius to go about it."

"He needs to hurry up I already got blue balled once today."

"Was there something else you wanted during our exchange with Barclay?"

Bernard rolled his eyes. "I don't know maybe for him to go off on that cocky little fucktard for his failure."

'I likely should've guessed. When this man's not stroking his battle happy ego he's too caught in his petty disdain for Greyson.' "If you're that eager to assert your image over Greyson's then be patient. Recklessness won't help your cause."

Bernard was about to retort but realized the Requiem's captain was right. The target mobile had higher specs then any GINN or CGUE to the point that simply throwing himself at it wouldn't result in his win even if the pilot was that damned brat was still the one behind its controls. "Fair enough."

"Good let's give the Commander time to plan things out. It should ensure all factors are accounted for."

"Well I'll admit I don't want any third wheels butting like they did with Greyson. That's piss me off to no end."

"I'm glad your thinking about this rationally." 'Though I do wonder you'll remain that way when your chance comes.'

"Hey I can be sensible when I need to be."

'Only when when you're not being provoked or too caught in the thrill of taking the lives of others.'

"Just be sure you're still sensible when your chance comes so your chances of successfully shooting down the target mobile suit when the time comes."

"With pleasure."

`You say that now but that question still remains are you going to follow with it or set yourself up for humiliation if not death.'

"I'll see to it the unit you'll be piloting is fully armed."

"Thanks it'll definitely help."

XXXXX

"Ok now that we're here, I need you to start from the beginning. What happened with you when Zaft arrived at the colony and began its attack." Abram stated firmly as a sat on one of the beds across from Eric.

Eric swallowed some of his saliva before he finally began to give an explanation for everything that has happened up to now.

"Back when Zaft began its attack me and everyone else's first thought was to find a shelter and wait until everything settled down which is what we initially tried to do."

"So where did all that change?"

"When Kira saw this girl break off from the rest of the crowd and followed after her with me close behind."

"Why did you follow them?"

"On impulse mostly and out of worry for Kira. By some off chance the girl in question led us to two of the mobile suits the Earth Alliance had made."

"Well that explains how you ended up stumbling upon the one you were piloting but you should have headed to a shelter rather than getting inside of a mobile suit the first chance you got."

"No that's not where I ended with the one I piloted, just the one Kira used and one of the ones stolen by Zaft."

"Alright then how did you find yours?"

"After we came across the two mobile suits a group of gunman came and one of them shot at us causing me to get separated from the others."

Eric then proceeded to explain how Marcus had arrived on the scene saving him but being forced take him the neighboring facility where he found the Hope Gundam and how in all out shoot out took place and how Marcus took a bullet for him prior to entrusting him with the Gundam.

During the explanation Eric had noticed that Abram's expression showed increased surprise when he initially brought up Marcus' name but simply felt that it must of been a little more than a coincidence.

After Eric had finished his story Abram sat silently for a few long moments before finally giving a reply. "Have you told the Earth forces this?"

"For the most part but I left out the parts concerning Marcus, the people pretending to be with Zaft or any specific names that anyone associated with Marcus had.

"Well as long as they're not pressing you about the issue then it should be fine."

Eric found himself baffled by that particular response. Normally Abram would be adamant about being truthful with everyone for the sake of general morality. Maybe it was because he knew about Eric's views when it came to the Earth Alliance that he didn't chastise him this time? Whatever the case Eric simply accepted it for what it was. "Alright."

"Still there's one last thing I need to know."

Eric tensed up and stared silently at Abram.

"Do you intend to keep piloting the mobile suit you found?"

"I don't want to but I'll probably have to."

Abram raised an eyebrow. "Is there some reason someone else can't pilot, if you were able to then it's a sure bet that it can be piloted by a Natural."

"Yeah as luck would have it, the thing has a biometric reader built in making it so that if anyone else tries to pilot it not only will it not start up its systems and a timed self detonation start counting down."

"So that means you'll be getting caught in these pointless squabbles between both sides?"

"You, Callahan, Kira, and a few others are on this ship. If it's shot down by Zaft or the ones pretending to be with them it'll mean we all die so I don't have much of a choice."

"I see, while I can't say I'm happy with the idea of you fighting anyone from either side buy if this is something you truly feel you need to do, I won't stop you but I want you to promise me one thing."

"Yeah?"

"Come back alive I don't want to lose you or Callahan."

"I promise."

"Good I'll be holding you to it. But now that this talk is over let's go see the others."

XXXXX

"Da-dad so your really were on that escape pod!" Callahan exclaimed before running up and embracing Abram.

"Sorry for not being able to see you immediately I had to have a bit of a talk with Eric about what's been happening."

"Wait do you mean that you know about him and Kira…?"

"Piloting the two mobile suits on aboard I do."

"I didn't think Eric would be the one to tell you that."

"It was actually one of the mechanics who made it known when they asked Eric to look over one of the OSes."

"Speaking of which. Callahan do you know when Kira is I need his help for a second." Eric said.

"Oh, he's working on the Strike."

"Alright thanks." Eric replied walking towards one of the catwalks.

"You're not gonna stay with me and dad?"

"Zaft could come after us at anytime so it's important that I get this done."

XXXXX

"So all your ship has left is a single CGUE?" Inquired Rau La Creuset to the captain of the Requiem.

"Unfortunately yes. We can still pursue the legged ship but we'll need whatever assistance for the Vesulias and Gamow that we can get."

"Ironically neither are any better supplied in terms of mobile suits in fact my CGUE is the only thing left and it's not even in any condition to use in a sortie at the moment."

"If that's the case then we'll be left with no choice but to wait for reinforcements." while Rooks was speaking from a pragmatic point of view he actually had no desire to do such a thing since it meant letting actual Zaft personnel aboard the Requiem which would mean he'd have to take certain precautions to make sure his nor any of the current crew's actual allegiance were ever discovered which would force him to cease nearly all contact with Barclay or the rest of the faction of was a part of. Unfortunately however this situation had left his hands tied, while he'd have the aid of the two Zaft ships going into battle with only a single mobile suit was a rather uncomfortable bet.

Bernard was skilled in his own right but if the previous conversation with him was anything to go by putting faith in him could very well prove disastrous.

"Actually I have another solution that should help level the playing field considering the enemies are relying on the Strike and the unknown G weapon."

"The G weapons our side has acquired?"

"We've already extracted the data from the mobile suits and the possibility that we would have to rely on them to deal with the two units within the enemy's grasp had always been real so there shouldn't be a problem this point."

"Fair enough. With those mobile suits at our disposal this should operation should well within our ability to carry out."

"I'm glad to see you agree. Now all that's left is to decide our next course of action based off where the enemy might attempt to flee to."

"There are only two possible places they could possibly try to get to it'd be best to plan accordingly."

"True. I'll be in contact again once we've decided on a plan."

XXXXX

"We need to get to the lunar base on the moon but from where were currently located we're bound to have another run in with the enemy along the way" Mu La Flaga mused as He Ramias and Badgiruel all looked over a map showing various locations in space.

Ramias groaned in frustration, however reluctant she may have been to admit the lieutenant was right. The Lunar base was a long way off which pretty much guaranteed Zaft another opportunity if not multiple ones to pursue and try to shoot down the Archangel.

"If that's the case then why don't we head for the Atrimas base it's closer to our current location and once we arrive we shouldn't have to worry about the enemy at the very least."

"And what do we do afterwards?"

"Have arrangements made to get to the lunar base on the moon. Once we reach Atrimas it won't be an issue."

"Accept this ship has no IF so we won't be able to prove we're part of the same side." 'Amongst other things.'

Badgiruel fell silent being unable to refute Mu's claim. Artemis might have technically been an Earth Alliance base but was under the jurisdiction of the Eurasian republic meaning they didn't know anything about the Archangel or the G weapons so convincing the officers stationed at the base could easily turn into a complicated matter.

Ramias finally broke the silence. "While it isn't without any risk heading to Artemis is our safest bet."

"Are you sure?" Mu inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Personally I'm not enthusiastic about this idea but I have no intention of allowing the enemy to shoot down this ship or obtain the only two remaining G weapons within our possession."

"Fair enough. But assuming we're able to convince them were not the enemy it won't necessarily mean we can let our guard down around them."

Badgiruel raised an eyebrow. "How exactly do you figure that?"

"The Atlantic federation and Eurasian Republic might both be part of the Earth Alliance but the two nations aren't exactly on the best terms with each other and never have been."

XXXXX

"I gotta say whoever designed the Hope's OS was a genius." Kira stated in slight awe.

After meetings with Flay and Abram had came to an end Eric had sought out Kira and inquired for his help with learning how to look over the OS of the Hope which the young Coordinator was happy to help with since it didn't actually involve fighting.

"You think so?" Eric inquired.

"Yeah. It's one thing since the OS is advanced enough to allow a Natural to pilot this machine as well as match their reactions but it also has a set of preset settings for various environments such as Earth's atmosphere, deserts, snowlands, underwater you name it, not only that I think this Gundam might even be able to fly within the Earth's atmosphere despite lacking the light armor design of Zaft's DINNs."

"When you put it that way it's easy to see where you're coming from."

"This machine's pretty impressive even by the standards of a Gundam."

"I suppose but still your Strike and the Aegis are nothing to scoff at either."

"True. Anyway I showed all everything you need to know, the Hope's systems are all in optimal condition."

"That good to know considering our situation."

Kira's expression became downcast once his mind drifted towards the fact that he and Eric would soon have to fight Zaft once again.

"Sorry I didn't mean to dampen your mood." Eric said surprising Kira.

"Oh uh, it's fine, I'm just not particularly enthusiastic about the idea of having to take life."

"Neither am I but for now let's just focus on protecting this ship when the time comes so we can get to the homeland safely with the others."

"Right I'll definitely be glad when this is all over with." Kira said walking off towards the crew quarters with Eric not far behind.

Upon arrival the two pilots were immediately greeted by their friends with Tolle being the first to speak up.

"Kira, Eric we've been wondering where you two were."

The young Coordinator scratched the back of his head. "We had to do some last minute work on the Strike and Hope."

"I guess that explains why Eric wasn't with Callahan when he came back with their Dad." Tolle turned to Eric. "They're only a few rooms down if you want to see them."

"There's no need at this very moment I had a chance to speak with my dad already while everyone was getting off that lifeboat speaking of which did any of you managed to find your parents?"

Mirriallia's face became downcast which didn't go unnoticed. "Sorry I asked."

"It fine I'm sure all our parents made it to the homeland safely."

"Right. Anyway, we should just focus on getting through this mess safely so we can see everyone else we know once we get to the homeland."

Sai shrugged. "Yeah you're right though the only ones who can really do that are you and Kira."

"Yeah well circumstances have a lot to do with that."

"No one's holding it against you it's just were not sure what we can do."

"I don't think there's any need to worry about it, going out and shooting at people in real life is a lot more terrifying than you might think."

"If I said was eager to start shooting at people that'd be a lie but...well I'll wish you Kira the best of luck."

"That might be the best you can do, especially since we're gonna need these two to launch soon." The voice of Mu La Flaga said causing everyone to turn to him.

Kuzzy's eyes widened considerably. "Wait are you saying Zaft's already caught to us?"

"Yeah well, they do have faster ships so it can't really be helped. Plus one of their ships decided to place itself in our flight path to cut us off" Mu turned to the pilots of the two mobile suits on board.

"Are you two ready?"

"Ye-yeah." Kira answered.

"You'll have my help." Eric replied.

"Good make sure you wear normal suits this time around."

XXXXX

Within the cockpit of the Requiem's only remaining mobile suit Bernard smiled eagerly with the belief that he'd soon bring down the target and one up Greyson.

"Remember while your real mission is to shoot down the target you should take out the legged ship if the chance presents itself." Rooks said over the radio.

Bernard shrugged dismissively "Don't worry as long as I'm out there fighting Zaft won't be in a position to question us let alone accuse us of anything."

"Just remember there are eyes that will be observing how this unfolds."

"Like I said as long as I'm out there fighting no one can say anything about us."

"You'll be launching alongside the Aegis."

"Right it'll be useful for keeping the other enemies preoccupied."

XXXXX

Entering the hanger Kira and Eric both proceeded to board their respective mobile suits.

The former now wore a mostly white flight suit with black and sky blue linings and a white and blue helmet whilst the latter bore nearly identical attire with the sole difference being that the secondary color of the linings were teal rather than blue.

After both pilots started up the systems on their mobile suits Mu La Flaga wasted no time in connecting with them both.

"Remember I'm gonna disable the ship that's ahead of us while you two hold off the enemy behind us."

"Got it/right." Kira and Eric replied simultaneously.

"Good anyway I'll be launching first to go on ahead."

After the Mobius Zero launched from the Archangel both the Strike and Hope were loaded onto the catapults of the Archangel. After the Strike was fitted with the Aile pack consisting of a beam rifle in its right hand and a shield mounted on its left arm along with a jetpack that housed two beam sabers both Gundams assumed a crouched position as both pilots readied themselves to launch however before either of the two pilots could sortie both pilots were met with an unexpected surprise when they were hailed by the Archangel's bridge.

"Kira, Eric are you there?"

The former was first to reply. "Miriallia what are you doing on the bridge?"

"From this moment forward I will be acting as the combat operator for the Mobius Zero, Strike, and Hope. I'm counting on you both."

"We're all counting on you." Sai followed up which brought a smile to Eric's face.

"Don't worry me and Kira will definitely protect this ship but why are you guys on the bridge?"

"Even though you guys seemed ok with handling everything we found it a little frustrating that we couldn't help you both directly on the battlefield so we decided to support in whatever way we could by helping out on the bridge."

"Alright and thanks it means a lot."

"Oh and before you launch Callahan wanted me to pass on a message from your dad."

Eric was mildly surprised by this. "Ok what's the message?"

"Just a last reminder for you to come back to the ship alive."

"Got it."

"Alright that's enough chatter." The voice of Badgiruel cut in. "Kira Yamato, and Eric Raglan precede to launch."

"Understood. Kira Yamato, Strike launching." The Strike was flung forward and out of the ships' right leg.

'I won't let anyone on board the Archangel die.' "Eric Raglan, Hope launching." As the Hope was flung from the ships' left leg Eric engaged the Hope's thrusters and activated its phase shift armor."

'Mu you better hurry and disable that other ship in front of the Archangel. The faster we're out of here the better.'

The Hope's secondary cameras detected two enemy signatures neither of which Eric was particularly thrilled to see. One was the Aegis whilst the other was a CGUE likely the one he had fought before on Heliopolis. At the very least he had Kira to back him up so he didn't have to worry about having to fight both of them off simultaneously but he still couldn't allow himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

Both of them were deadly enough opponents on their own hell the memory of nearly being impaled through the cockpit by the Aegis' beam saber stored in its leg was still fresh in Eric's mind but in spite of that he couldn't allow it to distract him here.

Of the two enemy mobile suits the CGUE was the first to attack via increasing its throttle and firing its machine gun at him. In response Eric immediately pulled back before taking aim with his beam rifle and firing at assaulting unit which maneuvered out of beam's path before drawing its heavy sword with its free hand and lunging at the Hope.

Eric pulled to the side avoiding the attack before he suddenly found himself being hailed by the enemy mobile suit. In spite of being initially confused the Hope's pilot was curious as to who was trying to contact him and against his better judgement patched them through only to find it was an individual he had no desire to see again.

"So the Earth Alliance didn't put an actual pilot behind that machine's controls? Well that'll make things a lot easier." Bernard arrogantly declared.

Eric glared at the man before firing at him only to have the shots dodged before Bernard tried to close in with his heavy sword once more. Eric blocked the attack with his shield before pelting the enemy CGUE with his CIWs which forced Bernard to back off.

The Zaft impersonator smiled before returning fire with his rifle forcing Eric on the defensive momentarily.

Acting quickly to regain the offensive Eric utilized the twin railguns forcing Bernard to evade the double set beams that soared in his direction before following up with a small number of shots from his beam rifle. Bernard managed to avoid most of the projectiles save for one he was forced to block with his shield which prevented damage to his mobile suit but at the cost of the shield itself being seriously damaged.

"I gotta hand it to you you're actually starting to fight a little better. But not by much."

Bernard readied his heavy sword but before he could attempt to charge at Eric a beam from another direction flew at the Hope forcing Eric to take quick evasive action leaving the teen pilot confused momentarily before the Hope's secondary cameras revealed the source.

'Are you kidding me. This guy and the Aegis are already enough of a problem!' Heading towards him with rifle and shield in hand was the Duel.

After letting another shot loose from its rifle the Duel put the armament away and pulled out a violet colored beam saber before charging at full throttle toward the Hope.

Eric quickly brought up his shield and blocked an overhead swing before pulling away from the Duel and retaliating with his shield vulcan which had no effect.

'Dammit I forgot phase shift armor renders physical blows useless.' The Duel charged him once more forcing Eric to pull back only for the enemy mobile suit to give chase swinging its beam saber at him whenever it got close enough.

Whoever the pilot of the Duel was it seemed like they was driven by nothing more aside from a pure blind egotistical nature.

Eric attempted to retaliate with his beam rifle but much to his dismay the enemy pilot was somehow managing to avoid the shot whilst staying within close enough proximity to attempt cutting the Hope or stabbing it.

The Hope's pilot would've continued his effort at trying to halt the Duel assault but the said effort was grinded to a halt when his beam rifle was pelted with bullets which forced Eric to discard the armament before it exploded.

"Let's see how you last without that gun to hide behind!" Bernard's called out.

Eric gritted his teeth and acted quickly to remedy his situation. Since the Duel's pilot seemed dead set on close quarters combat he responded in kind drawing his own beam saber which rather the amber like the Aegis or Violet like the Duel's was an emerald color.

Upon blocking the Duel's attack with his shield Eric attempted to counter only for the enemy Gundam to utilize its own shield to block his attack. Bernard decided to utilize the distraction to close and deliver a blow to the Hope's lower back.

Acting hastily Eric increased his throttle and pushed the Duel back a bit before separating from it briefly enough to send a kick to its abdomen earning a few moments of much needed breathing room to turn around and fire his twin railguns at Bernard who was barely able to avoid the blasts.

Eric pressed his offensive taking aim with his shield vulcan and letting loose a hail of bullets which Bernard promptly tried to block with his shield unfortunately for the Requiem's only remaining pilot he didn't account for the damage the defensive armament had previously suffered when it was met with a shot from the Hope's beam rifle and as a result the bullets from Eric's shield vulcan tore through Bernard's shield and straight into the CGUE's arm causing the mobile suit to lose its heavy sword in the process.

"Dammit!" Bernard cursed in a mixture of surprise and rage. While the CGUE's arm wasn't destroyed or severed it mine as well have been, thanks to the damage that was inflicted the hand along with the entire forearm was inoperable.

Glaring at the Hope in disdain Bernard took aim with his rifle and fired blindly. "I'm not losing to a worthless shit like you again!"

Eric simply ignored the hail of bullets and returned fire with the last of the ammo in his shield vulcan managing to rend the CGUE remaining arm useless and leaving the mobile suit essentially disabled.

"This is for Marcus!" Eric pointed his beam saber outward and made a beeline for the CGUE intending to stab it through the cockpit and make its pilot pay for killing the Hope's intended pilot.

"Not so fast!"

Before Eric could fully register what was said over the radio the Duel suddenly flew in his path and intercepted his attack with its own beam saber causing the two units to lock blades with each other.

"Don't get so full of yourself just because you have a high spec mobile suit. You're still just a Natural who's beneath us."

Eric didn't bother with any type of reply and simply pulled back enough to fire was twin railguns at the Duel which flew to the side to avoid both blast before making a beeline for the Hope.

"You're gonna have to do a lot better than that!" The Duel brought beam saber overhead whilst Eric used his own beam saber to intercept the blow with a horizontal slash. The Duel quickly followed up with another attack bringing it weapon back up which Eric avoided by pulling back only for the Duel to close the distance between the two once more performing an outward horizontal swing which Eric blocked with his own weapon before the two Gundams broke away from each other.

Once more Eric was about to fire his twin rail guns but stopped when his cockpit alarm went off alerting him to an incoming blast which he was quick to evade.

Turning in the direction the attack came from he was greeted to sight of the Buster heading towards him with both of its guns in hand.

Eric scowled in frustration. "This is becoming more than I can handle." Glancing in the Strike's general direction the Hope's pilot soon found the he soon found that it was now under attack from the Blitz to make matters worse both the Hope and Strike were too out for the Archangel to lend any assistance without utilizing its more destructive armaments and run the risk of destroying one of the two mobile suits fighting on its side and that wasn't even accounting for the fact that the two Zaft ships behind it were pouring on pressure to the Archangel.

Soon both the Buster and Duel were moving to attack Eric from both sides which he utilized the Hope's twin railguns in response to firing them at the Buster forcing it to dodge before it combined both of its guns into a single weapon and let loose and scatter shot beam which Eric was barley to avoid before the Duel charged him bringing its beam saber around to bear as soon as it was close enough to attack forcing him to parry the blow before trying to gain some distance from the two enemy mobile suit only for the Duel to give chase.

"What the hell's with this guy?!"

Thanks to the Duel's relentless nature Eric found himself having a hard time gaining any breathing room. Eric glance at his battery meter which was currently at twenty seven percent.

"Dammit if this keeps up I'm gonna run out of power!" Eric exclaimed as the Duel made another beeline for him swinging its saber overhead which he utilized his shield in response to.

Once the Duel's attack was successfully parried Eric brought his own beam saber around hoping to cut the Duel through its torso but only succeeded in getting it to back off.

XXXXX

"This is ridiculous." Kira said to no one in particular as he and the Blitz continued firing their rifles will flying around each other.

The young Coordinator was aloud some breathing room since the pilot of the Blitz was being fairly cautious about their approach and the Aegis was only floating by idly.

"Kira just come with us to the Gamow!" Pleaded the voice of his long time friend Athrun Zala who as Kira already suspected since Heliopolis was indeed piloting the Aegis.

"I can't do that Athrun."

"Kira the Naturals are only using you, you're one of us, you shouldn't even be in that thing."

Kira used his shield to block a shot from the Blitz before returning fire with his own rifle. "And what about you? Last I remember you always told me how you hated the idea of war so how are you with Zaft and why did you attack Heliopolis?"

"Because that's where the Natural's built these things, they turned it into a target."

"But Heliopolis was Neutral."

"You seriously believe that even after these mobile suits were manufactured there?"

"Me and my friends want nothing to do with this war."

The Blitz fire its piercer lock at the leaving Kira with little choice but to avoid the attack before the Blitz followed up letting one of its lancer darts loose.

Kira hastily brought up his shield to block the projectile only for it to pierce halfway through his shield before it exploded resulting in the shield being torn asunder whilst the Strike was flung backwards but surprisingly undamaged save for the loss of its shield likely thanks to its phase shift armor however the close call did shake Kira up considerably to the point where he was no longer thinking clearly.

With his mind now overcome with a sense of panic Kira shot at the Blitz repeatedly and without pause whilst the enemy Gundam simply went on the defensive and returned fire when it was able all the while avoiding or blocking Kira's shots.

As this went on the young Coordinator only grew more frustrated with being unable to land a proper shot in hopes of shooting the Blitz down or forcing it to retreat not noticing that his battery meter was dropping dangerously low.

However, by some miracle the two Zafts ships that were on the Archangel's tail shot off a number of flares signifying a withdrawal signal.

Seeing this Kira felt relief wash over him seeing as this fight was coming to an end.

XXXXX

"What the hell? Why's the Gamow and Requiem giving a withdrawal signal?!" Yzak demanded.

"Something must have went wrong with the Vessalius." Dearka replied.

Yzak growled in annoyance. He had personally wanted to be the one shoot both of the mobile suits within the Earth Alliance's possession for the sake of having the Achievement under his belt and bringing him closer to a promotion within Zaft's ranks.

He turned his attention to the unknown mobile suit since everyone onboard the ships felt it was likely the bigger threat and therefore more of a priority target because of the lack of information Zaft had on it (and also because it held off the Aegis and CGUE at the same time during the fight the destroyed Heliopolis.) making its destruction the best possible achievement one could get for this mission. In simple terms the destruction of the unknown mobile suit was something of a trophy or more accurately the most valuable trophy out of three with the other two being the legged ship and Strike.

The notion of having to withdraw now of all times when he was so close to reaching his end goal and having it snatched out of his hands did not sit well with him in the least.

"You've got to be kidding me. How in the hell could the Naturals ever even managed to do anything to the Vesalius?"

"Beats me."

The Archangel also fired off a withdraw signal.

"It looks like they'll be withdrawing too." Dearka mused as the Hope turned around and began heading back towards the Archangel.

"Like hell I'm gonna let that happen." Yzak announced increasing his throttle to its limit and chasing after the Hope much to Eric's shock and anger.

"Dammit get off my back!"

Eric turned the Hope around to face the rapidly approaching Duel before raising his beam saber to block the Duel's as the enemy Gundam brought it down before pushing the Hope away enough to deliver another kick to its torso.

Quickly turning around Eric began flying toward the Archangel once more before a voice that he could only assume was from the pilot of the enemy Gundam shouted over an open channel. "I'm not letting you get away!"

Again the Duel was chasing after the Hope with beam saber in hand causing a growl of annoyance from Eric. It was already bad enough that he was visibly on borrowed time as far as the Hope went considering its dangerously low battery meter was but this was just ridiculous. Both sides had already ordered a withdrawal yet the pilot of the Duel refused to stop fighting and honestly Eric was starting to wonder if its pilot was an even bigger warmonger than Bernard but there wasn't much he could do.

If he engaged in another beam saber duel with the stolen Gundam he'd eventually run out of power within minutes and if he used one more shot from his twin railguns he'd instantly be left with nothing but reserve power meaning he'd have to make the next shot count or it'd be the end for him.

"Hang on kid. I'll get this guy off your back." came the voice of Mu La Flaga as the Mobius Zero flew towards the two mobile suits from the opposite direction firing at the Duel.

The weapons from the Mobius Zero were ultimately ineffective in terms of inflicting potential damage but it was easily enough to get the pilots attention.

Yzak snarled as he changed his course to get rid of the impediment in his path. "Stay out of my way. I'm not in the mood to deal with a petty mobile armor."

The Mobius Zero's gun barrels separated from its main body and preceded to fire at the Duel from different angles.

"Why you!" Yzak roared before making a mad beeline for the Mobius Zero main body which by some miracle managed to get way of the way in time to avoid being cut in half but at the price of losing one of its barrels when the wire connecting it to the main body was severed.

"Shit!" Mu cursed before he tried to maneuver the Mobius Zero so it was in a position to fire on the Duel once again but the stolen mobile suit was faster and was quickly closing the distance between the two of them coming for an attack with its beam saber which Mu avoided via gunning it another direction just before the Duel got with range.

Watching this Eric decided he needed to get rid of the Duel here and now in order to bring this fight to an end. The Blitz had already ceased its attack on the Strike when the Zaft ships fired their withdrawal signals along with the Aegis and Buster meaning the Duel was really the only one keeping the fight going.

That problem was the question of how. The Mobius Zero's weapons were ineffective and only able to harass the mobile suit at best unless it ran out power itself and its phase shift armor came down but Mu would be shot down before long.

Eric himself couldn't really hope to defeat the Duel in a show of skill since it had taken everything he had just to hold off its assault before.

Kira was an unlikely solution since he was probably in no better condition to fight than Eric himself was if his loss of his shield was of any indication.

The only real way Eric saw out of this situation was if just manage to shoot the Duel down with his remaining shot from the twin railguns. "lieutenant La Flaga lead the Duel over to me."

"Are you out of your mind? How much power do you even have left at this point?"

"Enough to use one more shot from my railguns before the Hope's only left with reserve power but if I can just land this one shot and take out the Duel it'll be worth it."

"Kid do you have any idea how risky that plan is? If you miss not only will we still have the Duel to deal with but you'll practically be a sitting duck."

"I know but with how persistent this pilot's being this fight won't end until they're dealt with."

As much as Mu La Flaga may have wanted to refute that he couldn't, with the way things were playing out he couldn't, something needed to he done about the Duel. "You better make sure you don't miss your mark."

After maneuver the Mobius Zero to avoid another attack from the Duel Mu La Flaga mmflew in the Hope's direction at top speed while the Duel predictably gave chase.

"First you get in my way and now you think I'm just gonna let you turn tail and run? You're gonna die along with the rest of the Natural vermin out here."

The Duel fired its CIWs forcing Mu to take evasive action.

Eric tensed up as the two came closer to his position. No matter what he had to make this shot successful but there was a small part of him questioning his abilities and whether he could truly hit his mark or not.

The Duel and Mobile armor came closer and Eric tensed up before an odd image suddenly appeared in his mind showing the Duel flying within range before being shot down by the Hope's railguns.

While Eric wouldn't have normally written this phenomenon off as crazym before he remembered the time it happened while he was fighting the Aegis on the Colony of Heliopolis and it saved him from being stabbed through the cockpit and decided to trust in it this time.

As the Mobius Zero came closer seemingly on a collision course with the Hope before it suddenly stopped and changed the direction it was facing and before rapidly climbing leaving the Duel's pilot dumbfounded and confused before they finally noticed the Hope.

"Why the hell aren't you running away?" Yzak demanded receiving only silence as a reply.

Before he could contemplate what was unfolding any further he managed to notice both mouths of the Hope's twin railguns emitting a red glow.

"Oh shit!" Acting as fast as he was able Yzak moved to the left as the Hope fired at him. As the two crimson colored beams approached Yzak had managed to move the majority of the Duel's body out of their path however he found himself unable to save to mobile suit's right arm and beam saber which were both disintegrated to nothing in a matter of seconds.

"Yzak are you alright!?" Exclaimed the voice of Dearka whilst Yzak watch the Hope's phase shift armor come to before it began heading back to the Archangel along with the Mobius Armor and Strike.

"If you can hear me we need to retreat now. We got confirmation the Gamow's been damaged and if we any further we'll run the risk of running out of power." Athrun said.

Yzak didn't reply and only stared at the monitor connecting to the main camera growling in anger and sent a punch to the screen.

XXXXX

on board the Requiem the disabled CGUE opened up to reveal Bernard who no longer wore a confident smirk and now showed nothing but pure rage.

Rage at the humiliation that he had lost to someone who wasn't even a trained pilot, who was previously nothing more than a hopeless damsel in distress at his mercy before the guy who was supposed to pilot the target took a bullet for them.

"Fuck fuck fuuuuuck!" He roared loud enough to be heard throughout the hanger.

Rooks who was standing at the end of the catwalk simply stared at Bernard in indifference. While he had hoped for things to turn out better what actually happened wasn't anything he was personally shocked about especially considering Bernard's previous conceited attitude.

'Maybe he'll actually start thinking things through now.' the Captain of the Requiem thought although he didn't have too much confidence in that scenario actually happening. 'Regardless things will have to be left in Zaft's hands for the time being.'

"If you're finished screaming and swearing. We need to figure out how to go forward from here. 'Even if it's already a given in actuality.'

"You're not the one who just got humiliated by some shitstain civilian."

"I suppose. Still the arms of the CGUE are still intact so our mechanics should be able to repair them."

"Good. I need to pay that kid back for scaring my pride."

"I see. That aside however we should head to the bridge and wait for Rau La Creuset to contact us."

"As long as it involves us going after the target then there won't be any problems." bernard declared before leaving the hanger.

"So now he's driven by a vendetta rather than ego. Well hopefully it gets his performance to improve."

XXXXX

On board the Archangel body the Strike and Hope Gundams were mounted to the walls of the hanger.

A slightly shaken Kira exited the cockpit of the Strike and immediately headed for his room before anyone had a chance to greet him since he wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone.

Meanwhile inside the Hope Eric was still inside the cockpit the reason being was due to a sudden lack of energy.

After he had initially came back aboard and put his mobile suit against the wall he felt a sudden wave of fatigue wash over him, so much so that he found himself barely able to move and struggling not to fall asleep right there inside the Hope's cockpit.

Eric was momentarily confused until he remembered everything he had just been through trying to hold off Zaft forces and realized it only made sense he was tired.

The hatch to the cockpit suddenly opened startling Eric who was greeted to the sight of Mu La Flaga and Abram.

"I was wondering why you were staying in here. I guess I should have figured you be worn out." The former said earning a slight chuckle.

"Sorry you had a close call."

"Hey that wasn't your fault besides you're the one who got me out of it and saved me so if anything I should be thanking you."

"You think we might have a chance to rest up I kinda need it." Eric said before sleep finally took himself.

"I'll take him to the living quarters." Abram announced as he preceded to undo the belts holding Eric to the seat of the cockpit before carefully removing him and placing the unconscious boy on his back.

"Your son has a bit of potential as a pilot. Sorry we have to put him through this."

"It's fine he decided that he wanted to protect those on this ship so I'll support his decision."

"Well it's the same for everyone officer onboard this ship you won't find many people that want to fight for the sake of it."

"Fair enough." Abram replied before leaving the hanger with Eric in toe.

* * *

 **Alright that's the end of this chapter anyway sorry it took so long to get out and to anyone waiting for the next chapter of a new reason to live I'm working alongside a fictionpress story I'm making.**


	5. Arrival at Artemis

**Alright sorry this took forever I worked on this alongside the newest ch of a new reason to live.**

 **I'm honestly surprised though for some reason the original version is still getting favorites and followers. I might have to consider just continuing that one if it keeps up.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam seed.**

* * *

Eric suddenly found himself staring at the roof of one of the crew quarters rooms. He could immediately tell where he was since it was darkened but after registering the cushion substance he was laying on and the cloth covering his body he came to realize he was in one of the beds of the room.

Opening the curtain to his side, causing him to become temporarily blinded by the sudden influx of light until his eyes adjusted.

"I see your finally awake." A voice said causing Eric to turn and see Abram sitting at the edge of the bed across from the one he was in.

"D-dad what happened?"

"You managed to hold off a Zaft assault team before coming back to the ship and losing consciousness."

Eric didn't immediately reply as he began to recall everything that had happened previously. From his fight with the stolen Gundam and Bernard. "Everyone got back safe right."

"Of course. Believe or not you actually have yourself to thank for that."

"I do?" Eric asked before remembering how Mu La Flaga was almost shot down by the Duel. "Of yeah now I remember."

"I'm relieved that your safe."

"Sorry for worrying you. Hopefully there won't be anymore encounters with Zaft."

"There shouldn't, according to the crew we're about to arrive at an Earth Alliance base in the next fifteen minutes."

"Already?"

"You were asleep for a while."

"Just how long?"

"For around the last three and a half hours."

"That long?" Eric asked. If that was the case it would make sense that the Archangel had mady a good amount of headway but at least to Eric's immediate knowledge

"Yes you were pretty exhausted when you came back."

"How are the others doing?"

"They're all fine. You can see them in the mess hall."

"Alright. Any idea what base we're going?"

"From what I've heard from Callahan we're headed to a place called Artemis."

"I've never heard of a place like that."

"Apparently it's much closer than our original destination." And that explained how the Archangel was arriving at a destination under its power so soon still Eric wouldn't have imagined the Earth Alliance having a base so close to where he and his family lived.

"As soon as we're out of the clear with Zaft I want to get to Orb's mainland as fast as I can with you and Callahan."

"Understandable. Once were there it shouldn't take too much time for me to find a home for us to move into so we can return to a normal life style."

"Glad to hear it. Before I forget where are the others now?"

"In there mess hall I'd imagine."

Eric chuckled a bit upon hearing that. All things considered it was probably something that should have been fairly obvious. Other then the crew quarters rooms the only they could really be is the mell hall.

"Do you want to go see them?"

"Yeah it would definitely be a welcome after everything that's happened up until this point."

It was Abram's turn to chuckle."I suppose that's understandable. Come on let's go see them.

XXXXX

"How much longer are the repairs gonna tale!?" Demanded an angry Bernard. As he watched the machinic team working on the damage to the CGUE Greyson had left him with.

"Another thirty minutes."

That earned a growl from the wayward pilot. "That's not could enough. The ship will reach the base its headed for by then."

"Then you should have thought of that before getting both arms disabled." One of the mechanics shot back dismissively.

"Just do you fucking job."

"Stop bitching and whining."

"Why you-"

"Enough."

Bernard turned to face the chief of the mechanic team. "You can be as mad as you want but harassing my team isn't going to help your case."

"I need the suit repaired so I can shoot the little shit who humiliated me."

The chief mechanic grunted in annoyance.

"You'll get your chance the next time we encounter the enemy. Like it or not it's going to be at the base they're heading to."

"That means there's EA pilots getting in the way."

"You'll just have to deal with it."

Bernard snarled but walked away leaving the Salvation's hanger.

"God that asshole's gotten even more annoying." The mechanic from before mused.

"Agreed the guy's alway been a fucking dick but now it seems like all he wants to do is whine over the target." A second mechanic chimed in before being followed by a third.

"Speaking of which I heard the pilot wasn't someone who's not even a soldier."

The first mechanic raised an eyebrow at this. "Really that sounds hard to believe."

"Actually I heard something similar." The second mechanic said. "According to our gunmen the person that was inside the mobile suit wasn't even any employee from the facility or one of the PMCs defending the place but some random kid who wandered into the place by mistake."

The first mechanic's eyes widened."No way, seriously?"

"Apparently."

"I guess that would explain the fucker's bruised ego."

This earned laughter from the third mechanic. "Serves him right. Seriously the amount of hubris he showed was absolutely ridiculous."

The chief mechanic sighed having heard enough of his team's conversation. "Alright cut the chatter, as annoying as it might be we still need to make sure the CUGE is ready for sortie when the time comes.

"Yeah yeah, let's just hope Bernard doesn't embarrass himself again. Last thing we need is him becoming even bitchier."

'True.' The chief thought. While Bernard's previous hubris and arrogance was annoying to behold with how he loved to flaunt it, this new angier and revenge obsessed persona couldn't really be thought of as an improvement since the Gunman and pilot at times was now making a complete nuisance of himself to everyone in the hanger.

The chief could only sigh. As much as he didn't want to admit to himself since it wouldn't help the crew's mission, he honestly hoped that whoever the supposed kid piloting the target mobile suit was that they could shoot Bernard down for good.

XXXXX

"This is the Archangel. Artemis please respond." Ramius said over the ship's coms only to immediately tense up when she received no immediate reply.

Mu who was standing next to Ramius' seat grimaced. The Artimas base was right in front of them but the problem with gaining any type of entry was in the form of an umbrella shield encasing the base in its entirety. As long as the shield in question remained in place entry was essentially impossible. 'If course they wouldn't lower it so easily. This ship has no IFF code.'

"This is Artemis we read you but as we have no way to identify you we can't pernit you entry."

"I know we have no IFF code to identify this ship as friendly but we need entry immediately, I am Murrue Ramias of the Atlantic Federation and the acting captain of this ship. We are on the run from Zaft forces."

Silence. Ramias felt herself becoming even more tense as the second dragged on. If the ship was denied entry into Artemis everyone onboard would be in a tight spot not only because of the obvious factor of pursuing Zaft forces but also limited supplies, it didn't help that there was a high number of civilians from Heliopolis on board.

Thinking about it made any type of trip to the lunar base on the moon seem like the equivalent to a fully blown odyssey even if one ignored everything that had happened thus far, that was the entire reason Ramius had even agreed to the idea of coming here at all.

While Natarle may have carried an optimistic attitude believing that the Eurasian's would sympathize with the Archangel's crew without a semblance of a doubt Ramius' own beliefs were more aligned with Mu La Flaga's, in other words while the acting Captain of the Archangel had hoped that against all odds the Eurasions would allow the Archangel entry she was also wary since there was the definite possibility of ulterior motives if the Eurasain's granted her request.

"Very well, we're lowering the umbrella shield now."

Ramius and everyone on the bridge let out a sigh of relief whilst the light green tinted force field encasing the vase dissipated.

"Aright. Nueman take us in."

"Got it."

XXXXX

Inside the hanger of the Archangel Kira had just finished putting a lock on the Strike's OS as per lieutenant Mu La Flaga's instructions after being informed to do so prior to the ship's arrived.

 _"Hey Kira ya got a minute there something I need you to do before we get to this place"_

 _The young Coordinator tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Ok. what?"_

 _Mu's eyes narrowed before he lowered his voice to a whisper._

 _"Put a lock on the strike's OS."_

 _Kira's confusion rose even further. He had wondered what Mu was going to request but this was not along the lines of anything he could have expected. "Are you sure?"_

 _"Yeah. Make sure no one can operate the machine but you."_

 _"Alright but what about the Hope?"_

 _"Its biometric reader already has that covered."_

 _"Can I ask why."_

 _"Call it a precaution for what might happen."_

 _"I don't understand. We'll be safe from Zaft here won't we?"_

 _"Zaft can be pretty resourceful, especially with the other four G weapons in their possession and they may not be the only ones we need to worry about?"_

 _"Wh-what do you mean?"_

 _"You might see when we get there." And with that Mu left._

Honestly Kira really hoped Mu La Flaga was exaggerating things when he gave that warning.

He had no desire to have anymore encounters with Zaft, confront Athrun as an enemy, or even pilot the Strike anymore. Thinking about filled him with no shortage of stress as he could only ask himself why it was so hard for people to understand that he wanted no part of this war.

The second red flag created an inner sense of anxiety. seriously Zaft wasn't the only thing everyone had to worry about? Did Mu mean to imply the people stationed at the Artemis base would try something? Why weren't the crew and them on the same side? All Kira wanted was for all this to be over with so he could love out his life in peace.

"Hey what is this?!" One of the crew suddenly yelled out gaining Kira's attention.

The Coordinator pilot turned in the general direction of the commotion and was met with a sight that made him go cold. 'Was this what Mu La Flaga meant?'

Numerous men clad in flight suits were taking the mechanic team and officers at gunpoint. "Stay silent. Everyone here to gather in a single area."

Kira could only stare wide eyed as everyone including himself was rounded up by the officers stationed at the base.

XXXXX

"Well are you both ready for this?" Mu inquired to both Ramius and Badgiruel who along with himself were all waiting for the commander Garad Garcia to come to the bridge of the Archangel to meet with them.

"As I'll ever be." The former replied. "I just hope things go well."

Badgriuel glanced at Ramius. "If we just explain the situation everything should be fine."

Mu La Flaga sighed. "I hope so." 'Otherwise things are gonna get a lot more complicated.

Unfortunately by some twisted coincidence the door to bridge was opened at that very moment and the Hawk of Endymion's worst fears came true.

The expected guess Garade Garcia did arrived but along with him were a squadron of rifle men who immediately started taking everyone on the bridge at gunpoint.

Ramius' eyes widened with shock. She did anticipate some complications but not to this level after being granted entry. "What's the meaning of this?!"

Moments later she, Mu, and Badgiruel were also taking at gunpoint whilst the Commander of the base casually strofe toward them.

"This is standard procedure given your particular circumstances so I'll advise all of you to stay silent for the time being."

Badgiruel who finally got over her initial shock at what was happening turned her gaze in Garcia's direction. "Commander, we're going to need some explanation. It should be obvious were not with Zaft."

"Maybe but you need to remember that your ship had no IFF code so we have yet to determine if you're actually friendly."

Mu's eyes narrowed as he watched Garcia scrutinize the bridge with a contemplative look on his face. The others may not have picked up on it but the Lieutenant already that the Commander of the Artemis base was planning something involving the Archangel, Strike, and even the Hope which begged the question. Was he going to be discreet about his ulterior motives or make them obvious to everyone on the ship?

"Whatever the case I'm going to have to ask the Officers on board to come with me."

The officers wasted no time in taking Mu, Ramius, and Badgiruel off the bridge and from there off the ship.

The Artemis Commander couldn't help but smile inwardly at this turn of events.

While it may have indeed been true that the ship had no IFF code but it was actually obvious to the Commander that those onboard the ship weren't with Zaft and that they were indeed friendly, that become apparent when he saw the Hawk of Endymion on the bridge.

This was a golden opportunity. For the Atlantic federation project to wind up here of all places, this was the chance of a lifetime Garcia could use this ship and two mobile to tip the balance of power in the Eurasain federation's favor and give it dominance over the Earth Alliance as a whole.

XXXXX

"What is going on, why are these guys keeping us here?" Tolle asked.

"The problem is this ship has not identification." One of the officers replied.

"Seriously? Anyone with half a brain can tell we're not with Zaft."

The chief mechanic glanced around scrutinizing the Eurasians keep everyone crew member and civilian alike in the mess hall and on that same note he caught sight of them bringing two very familiar people in.

"Move." One of the Eurasians demanded as the two complied quietly. The first person being brought in was Abram who looked around the room in worry likely looking to see if anyone he knew was safe.

The second was Eric who simply stared at the ground with a visible scowl on his face clearly upset with the situation, that was hardly surprising since he wasn't the only one who didn't like what the Eurasains were doing.

Both of the two were soon seated at the same table as Tolle, the officers, and the chief mechanic himself who simply sighed.

"If you ask me there's something else going on here."

"You think so?" Tolle asked.

"Yeah. It might be understandable of the Eurasians to be somewhat wary since our ship has no ID but the fact that they're only talking to the commanding officers and no else is painting a fishy picture and on top of that they don't even care that there are civilians onboard."

Nueman glanced around the room "Yeah I agree. They're just using our lack of an IFF code as an excuse."

Tolle scratched the the back of his head."Ok but then what are the really after?"

"The only thing they could be after is the Strike and Hope." Murdoch spat.

Neuman could only sigh. "Figures." It truly did. Knowing the Eurasain's strained relations with the Atlantic Federation many of the Archangel's crew could easily guess their end goal in holding everyone at gunpoint like this.

Honestly it had some members of the crew wondering if Zaft was really the only enemy they had to worry about. With the Eurasain's current actions it was probably something of a miracle the crew and refugees haven't been disposed of already though that would likely only remain the case so long as the Eurasains were in the dark about how the mobile suits' systems worked.

All things considered the Archangel's commanding officers should have known better than to come here, their reasons for doing so may have been understandable since the situation was pretty desperate but the fact remained that coming to the Artemis base was a lost gamble.

All that was left to ponder was how was the crew going to get out of this before the Eurasains decided to find a way to make them disappear or Zaft found a way past the base's umbrella shield.

XXXXX

Garcia smiled casually at the commanding officers from the Archangel who sat across from him in his personal office.

"It seems we were able to confirm your indeed who you say are."

Mu maintained a stoic face in spite of the news that should have brought about a sense of relief. "Then we'd appreciate being on our way as soon as possible."

"Now hold up I don't think there's any real rush to leave. Besides you have your vessel resupplied."

"Then it would be best if we were resupplied and away from here in the shortest timespan possible."

"And might I ask why that is?"

"We're being pursued by Zaft."

The Commander only smirked upon hearing this. "Oh are you referring to this vessel?" The Commander pressed a button on his desk causing the screen behind him to display the image of one of the two Zaft ships that was chasing the Archangel surprising all three officers of the Atlantic Federation.

"As you can see they've been there for some time but in the end there's nothing they can do. One or two Zaft vessels is hardly a cause for concern since this base's umbrella shield has always been impregnable to date."

Ramius felt her frustration with this entire ordeal grow "Commander our ship is a high priority target for the enemy they're not going to give up their pursuit so easily."

"On the contrary, they won't have a choice now that you're here of all places. Zaft ships have came by here before and it's always the same scenario, they linger around for a bit and leave it happens all the time."

Mu La Flaga narrowed his eyes. "We're absolutely safe here?"

"Safe as an infant in its mother's arms."

'I wonder about that.'

Garcia turned off the screen. "Well for the time being we can't just send you and those poor refugees out into the enemy's hands so why don't you three take some time to get some R & R? I'm sure you could certainly use it."

XXXXX

"So is the legged ship just going to hide in this base now?" Dearka inquired.

Nicol put his hand on his chin in thought. "This base has never had any strategic value so Zaft has simply left it alone until now."

Yzak smirked. "Guess that's all about to change since the people stationed here were stupid enough to take in our target."

The Captain of the ship shrugged. "We still have to deal with the base's umbrella shield."

"Is it really going to be a problem? It was made by Naturals."

"That may be but the umbrella has been impregnable to date."

Dearka raised an eyebrow. "You've got to be kidding me." The very idea that inferior Naturals being capable of this type of feat.

"You can deny it if you want but it won't change the reality we're currently faced with."

Yzak moaned in annoyance. "This is ridiculous we practically have the legged ship in our sights and we're being impeded by this."

The captain shook his head. "Until we find a way past it that won't change." That was certainly easier said than done, while what they had to do was pretty straightforward the questioned remained was how.

In spite of how they were speaking of the situation even the pilots of the Duel and Buster knew that they could not simply break through the umbrella shield covering Artemis using conventional means even with the fire power their respective machines possessed.

The next best thing might have been to wait until the umbrella shield was lowered but that wouldn't happen until the gamow was out of sight and even then the moment they returned the EA personnel was simply raise the shield again the moment they detected the ship within their perimeter.

As things stood the Zafr crew was actually in quite the bind regardless of whatever reluctance they might have had to admit it, in fact the situation appeared to be all but hopeless until Nicol spoke up. "I might have a way to get past the shield."

XXXXX

"Sir, we have news about one of the mobile suits on board the Atlantic Federation's new warship!" One of Artemis' personnel exclaimed.

The Commander smiled in anticipation. "Oh have amour personnel gotten a look at the OS?"

"No, one of the mobile suits has a lock on its OS impededing then but that's not what I came to inform you of."

Garica's face turned into a frown. "Then am I to assume it has something to do with the other mobile suit."

"Yes, the one with the light blue jewel in its chest has a timed self detonation mechanism in it."

The Commander's eyes widened in shock."What? You don't mean to tell me that…." The Commander couldn't bring himself to finish but the other officer was already aware of what he was intending to ask.

"Unfortunately I do. The self detonation switch has started a fifteen minute countdown and if we don't find the pilot before it runs out the mobile suit will self destruct."

Garcia became overtaken by anger as he slammed his fist down on his desk. "We need to find the pilot now!"

XXXXX

"Uggh how much longer is this going to go on for?" Tolle groaned.

"I think the real question is how are we going to get out of this?" Sai replied before scrutinizing the room and seeing no opening that could be exploited.

"Couldn't just tackle them?"

Murdoch shook his head. "Not without something distracting them. Unless we want to get shot."

"Couldn't one of us make a scene or something."

"No whoever tries to would be shot on the spot."

"Oh." Tolle sighed before looking around. "But then what are we supposed to do?"

"For now bid our time and if they ask questions about the two mobile suits don't tell them anything."

"Seriously? Aren't these guys also part of the Earth Alliance?"

"Yeah but even so we have never really had the best relations with them; it wouldn't surprise me if the Eurasains were trying to utilize the opportunity to turn our showing up on their doorstep into an opportunity to make a power play against the Atlantic Federation.

"So these guys are basically trying to one up us when we're supposed to be on the same side, just how low can one get?"

Eric who was sitting quietly merely shook his head in silence. For him that was a rather imprudent question to ask. The Earth Alliance might claim to be a just and honest bunch but that couldn't be further from the truth.

This entire war started simply because the Earth Alliance got the idea in their heads that killing civilians would give them supremacy over the Coordinators, all things considered there was no real reason to be surprised by something like this, they lacked any real morality so it was somewhat naive to think their loyalties would hold much weight.

"Alright who is the pilot of the winged mobile suit?" A voice suddenly called out causing everyone to look in its direction to see a man who looked to be the Commander of the Artemis.

Nueman stood up and Kira tried to follow only for Murdoch to stop him. "Didn't our Captain tell you?" Neuman asked earning a glare from the Commander.

"No they haven't, but just the same I feel privileged to see what the two mobile suits are capable of. Besides, it might be in your best interest not to hide the pilots identity since as fate would have it, there is a self detonation device on it that's currently counting down. I'm certain you all know where I'm going with this."

Murdoch and a few others grit their teeth at the implication but no that there was no way that the Commander of the Artemis base was bluffing since they had soon the self detonation switch for themselves when they tried to look at the Hope's OS themselves.

Many of the refugees on board became tense upon hearing this. While none of them had witnessed anything concerning the Hope's feature in question they were well aware that the term "self detonation" could only mean one thing.

"So for all of our sakes how about you turn over the pilot while we're all still among the living?"

Eric grimaced at the entire situation. He really didn't want anyone at this base knowing about him since he wanted nothing to do with them, hell it was already nauseating enough having to fight along the Archangel's crew.

"I'm the pilot."

The Commander looked in Eric's direction with a raised eyebrow. "I'll advise you not to joke around, this really isn't the time for that."

Murdoch sighed before standing up. "He's telling the truth."

"Oh really?"

"Considering that we all die if the mobile suit's countdown reaches zero we don't gain anything from lying to you at this point. So you can either take him with you to deactivate the self detonation switch or every officer and have no success in doing so until we're all blown to oblivion."

Garcia put a hand on his chin. "You have a point so I'll take your word for it, since if you're lying you all die too and it's highly doubtful you'll go that far but there is one more thing I'd like to know."

Garcia glanced around the room. "Who's the pilot of the other mobile suit?"

"They won't be able to help you deactivate the self detonation." Nueman replied.

"Be that as it may they can still help us with other things. Now who is it?"

"It was lieutenant Mu La Flaga."

"Now I know your lying. I've soon the mobius Zero onboard and have seen the footage of your previous skirmish with Zaft here the Mobius Zero held its own. The only person capable of such a feet is Mu La Flaga. Now who's the real pilot?"

Kira sighed wanting this entire situation to move forward especially seeing as the entire ship could be destroyed any minute if Eric wasn't allowed to go deactivate the Hope's timed self detonation. "It's me." He announced whilst standing up.

Garcia grunted in irritation. "Ok since you people are so intent to keep the truth from me I might have to start having my men begin killing the refugees one at a time."

"What? I'm being serious!"

"So am I."

"What is with you people? He's telling the truth." A femine voice said causing everyone to look in the direction of Flay whilst she continued. "That boy's a Coordinator."

"Oh really." Garica inquired before turning to Kira and grinning "Well that explains a lot. Now that we have both of the pilots we'd best head to the hanger in a timely manner."

Abram immediately stood up. "Then take me with you." Earning a raised eyebrow from the base's Commander.

"And just why would I bring a Civilian with me?"

"Because you're taking my son with you."

Eric practically turned pale upon witnessing this. He loved and cherished Abram as his parent even if the two weren't related by blood and knew he meant just as much to Abram if his current actions were of any indication. The problem was that while Abram may have been thinking about Eric's safety there was little he could really do in this situation and to make matters worse he was basically jeopardizing his own.

Garica looked between Kira and Eric and noticed the latter's frantic demeanor answering the question he was about to ask Abram. "Sorry but we only need your son to deactivate the self destruct device there's nothing for you to do."

"And what do you plan to do with him once that's done?"

"Oh I'll get around to that when the time comes but you can stay here with stay right here with the others."

Abram immediately began marching towards the Commander in defiance. "There is no way I'm letting you do whatever you want with-" the rest of his sentence was cut off by the sound of a gunshot going off.

Eric felt as if his stomach turned to dry ice when he spotted a bloodied spot forming in Abrams' abdomen who stood wide eyed as if trying to figure out what had just happened before falling to his knees and then face first to the ground.

"DAD!" Both Eric and Callahan called out before the latter ran to Abram's side whilst the former was stopped one of the officers grabbed him by his arm and began dragging him away.

"I'd suggest you cooperate, if you deactivate the self detonation in a timely enough manner and the other pilot helps quickly enough we might just be able to provide your father with the medical attention he now needs and save his life."

XXXXX

Inside Artemis' main monitoring station the officers watched on the main monitor as the Zaft Zaft left the base's perimeter before the one in charge gave the order to lower the umbrella shield.

"Well looks like another Zaft ship is gone." One of the officers said offhandedly.

"Just like every other time, this is getting pretty repetitive."

A third officer chuckled. "I know right. You'd think by now Zaft would know when to give up."

All those present had like their Commander had become overly confident in the belief that they were safe behind the Artemis base's umbrella shield.

After any attempt by Zaft to try anything end the same way it became apparent that for all their supposed technological superiority the Coordinators were powerless in the face of Artemis' defense.

Or rather that's what those stationed at the base had convinced themselves of. Not a single person even considered a scenario where the vase itself would come under attack.

XXXXX

As the catapult to the gamow opened and extended the Blitz launched from the ship out into the depths of space in the direction of the base that the legged ship had docked at.

Ordinarily this type of tactic would be pointless since the Eurasains could simply raise the shield as soon as they detected it as they would with any enemy force that was spotted within their perimeter. But the circumstances surrounding the Blitz's deployment were far from ordinary.

Where the Duel was Balanced machine, the Buster specialized in long range warfare, the Aegis possessed its mobile armor configuration, and the Strike could attach different packs to itself for a variety of situations, the Blitz had it own speciality.

-Flash back start-

 _"Mirage collide? How in the world is a system like that supposed to help us." The Zaft captain inquired o which Nicol wasted no time in answering._

 _"You see the system is intended to make Blitz's main focus possible."_

 _"You mean Blitzkrieg warfare."_

 _"Yes and that's where its chance at getting past the umbrella shield lies."_

 _"I see what your trying to say but you've yet to provide an idea of just how this Mirage Collide will help."_

 _"Theoretically it should make the Blitz visually invisible and undetectable by any type of radar meaning it could be used to slip past the shield's perimeter before the enemy ever has a chance to even try to raise it."_

 _Dearka smirked. "Wow sounds like a weapon that really suits you considering what a coward you are."_

 _"Enough!" The Captain demanded before turning his attention back to Nicol_

 _"You said this was theoretical correct."_

 _"Yes, as of now the system is untested but it's the best chance we have."_

 _"The captain weighed his options before realizing the Nicol was right. "Very well, ready yourself to launch immediately."_

-flashback end-

Nicol exhaled before proceeding to start up the system. 'I know the Blitz's specs say it should be fine but I can't help but be a little nervous."

Luckily the Blitz had no problem and was successful and making itself invisible to the naked eye and any camera.

"It looks like the system works. Assuming it stay that way I'll have one hundred and eighty minutes." The Zaft red sais to no one in particular whilst heading for the Artemis base while the Earth Alliance personnel there were essentially none the wiser.

Before long the Blitz had slipped past the boundary that the shield would have marked when activated before he spotted what he believed may have been the port of the base and preceded to aim in its direction with his beam rifle.

XXXXX

Garcia smiled as he watched Eric press his hand up against the biometric reader and reset the self destruct sequence.

"Now that we don't have to worry about being blown to smithereens we can focused on looking over the OSs over the machines.

The Commander then turned his gaze over ti Kira who was in the Strike's opened cockpit. "Among other things."

"Kira met Garcia's gazs and narrowed his eyes. "And what would those be?"

"Why making further use of you and your fellow pilot of course. Afterall a couple of Coordinators fighting alongside the Earth Alliance is certainly more than a little valuable."

"Then you don't need anything more with Eric. He's a Natural."

Garcia chuckled at this. "Your sense of loyalty is admirable but the cats out of the bag with him even if no one said it directly it's pretty obvious, afterall how else could he possibly be the other mobile suit's pilot?"

Kira could hardly believe they Commander. Was he seriously intent on believing Eric was a fellow Coordinator just on the grounds of being the Hopes pilot? Unfortunately matters only became worse when the Commander continued. "Not that it matters in the end as I've said before, I am going to make use of both of you on the Eurasians federation. Afterall with what you two are capable of it wouldn't be hard to imagine you making more machines like the ones of this ship or something that could destroy them."

"But neither one of us want anything to do with this war."

"But you're both already traitors to your fellow Coordinators are you not? So there's no point in acting like you're still Neutral."

Kira didn't know how to reply whilst Eric simply sat in the Hope's cockpit silently. "I assure you there's nothing to worry about. Both you and your friend would be made very welcome within the Eurasian Federation."

Before the Commander could continue any further a massive tremor was heard and felt throughout the base. Immediately upon registering what had just happened Garcia pulled out a Radio and contacted the personnel who were supposed to keep an eye on the outside of the base. "What in the world were those tremors, are we under attack."

"We're not sure. We haven't detected anything with our perimeter."

"Well those tremors could have only caused by explosions so hurry up and raise the umbrella shield."

Whilst the Commander Kira took the opportunity to kid the officer looming outside of the Strike cockpit away before closing the hatch.

Taking notice of this Garcia glared at the Strike as it dismounted itself from the wall and walked toward the catapult. "Where do you think your going?!"

"We're under attack aren't we, neither of us have time for your nonsense. Eric I'll need your help if those four machines are here."

Upon hearing Eric closed the hatch to the Hope's cockpit and proceeded to follow Kira further anger the base Commander.

"Don't think you're going anywhere, you hear me? Neither of you are leaving this base."

The only response Garcia got was when the Hope tilted its head in his direction and proceeded to fire its CIWs at him.

By some miracle Garcia managed to just barely avoid being killed before turning to fleeing the hanger whilst silently swearing to make Kira and Eric pay dearly for their refusal to Cooperate. But first he had to see the problem with Zaft dealt with.

The opportunity he chanced upon when the Archangel fled to the Artemis base was a chance of a lifetime opportunity that could shift the balance of power in Eurasion Federation's favor, the Commander had no intention of letting it slip through his figures.

"Sir one of the shield generators have been destroyed!" One of the Artemis personnel announced over the radio causing Garcia to stop in his tracks just as he exited the Archangel.

"What that's impossible!"

"Additional generators are being destroyed, we won't be able to maintain the shield for much longer!"

"Then send out our mobile armors now! I'll be at the commander center as soon as I can."

XXXXX

"Wh-what's going on?" One of the Eurasians guarding the entrance to the Archangel's mess hall inquired.

At this moment Murdoch, Nueman and a few other officers walked up to them. "You mean you don't even know what's going on?"

"He-hey!" before either officer could take aim both of them were tackled to the ground whilst the rest of the crew started heading towards the bridge of the Archangel.

The chief mechanic smirked at the pinned Eurasians. "Sorry but it's high time you and the rest of your cronies got off this ship."

Murdoch turned towards Callahan and the other kids who volunteered to help out the crew.

"You guys need to hurry and join the others on the bridge we'll need this ship ready to leave the moment the Ramius and the others get back.

"But what about Callahan's Dad?" Tolle inquired.

"We'll get him to the medical bay as soon as we got all these damn Eurasians off the ship."

"Alright." With that all five kids headed to the bridge of the Archangel.

"Well let's hurry up and get rid of these damned Eurasains so we can get to our jobs on the ship."

"Yeah that'll definitely make things easier getting out of here." Another voice said causing Murdoch, Neuman and the rest pinning the gunman down to look up and see Mu La Flaga, along with Ramius and Natarle.

"You got back just in time."

Mu just wore his trademark smile. "Yeah like you we used the opportunity that came when Zaft began attack this place. But we gotta hurry up and start up the ship so we can get out of here, I doubt this place is gonna last much longer."

XXXXX

Outside the Artemis base Nicol had cut through the fourth generator near his immediate position further destabilizing the umbrella shield which had began to go offline and dissipate leave the base itself exposed.

"I guess there's no need for this anymore." He said to no one in particular as he deactivated the mirage collide and activated the Blitz's phase shift armor.

Glancing at the port he soon beheld the sight of numerous mobile armor units coming out of the base's ported.

'So the enemies coming out to fight now that their shield is down. Doesn't matter, I need to find the legged ship as fast as I can.' Nicol headed straight for the port shooting down a few stay mobile armors along the way. Others tried to retaliate but with their weapons being ineffective due to the Blitz's phase shift armor Nicol was able to simply ignore them and continued inside the port.

Once inside the only thing he found within immediate with more mobile armors that tried to impede him.

Nicol chose to begin relying primarily on his CIW's for the sake of conserving power. While the mobile armors may have been an obstacle that he needed to get past the Zaft red was well aware that the real fight would begin the moment he found the legged ship and more so to the point the Strike and unknown mobile suit.

He already used thirteen percent of his power which would leave him at a disadvantage because of it along with the fact he'd be outnumbered until Yzak and Dearka showed up.

Speaking of which he was already sending data to the Gammow of the base's inner layout and the moment when found the legged ship he'd send data of its location to insure he'd receive the backup he needed.

XXXXX

"So the target mobile suit's been found?" Bernard asked over the radio as he readied himself to launch for the Requiem

"Not quite but it shouldn't be long now. The Blitz is already inside the base itself and its been sending our ship along with the Gamow data of the base's interior." Rooks replied.

"And that helps me how?"

"You'll want to know the quickest route to the target won't you."

"You got a point there. I don't want Zaft stealing my prey.

Be advised the Earth Alliance have launched their mobile armors so the target and Strike aren't the only things to take into account."

Bernard shrugged. "That hardly matters. The can barely stand up to your run of the mill GINN pilot and even that's only when they have a five to one advantage."

"We'll rely whatever information we are able while you carry out your mission."

"If you feel so inclined." Cutting the link Bernard watched eagerly as the hatch to the Requiem opened.

This time Bernard would definitely shoot the target along with the kid piloting it. His pride was already being scared by being outside by the fucking brat Greyson so being humiliated by the peice of shit behind the controls of the target mobile suit was something he wasn't going to let stand.

XXXXX

"It's a relief to see you're all safe." Kira said upon being contacted by Mirriallia over the radio.

"We could say the same for you two. We were worried after seeing you two dragged away. The Eurasians do anything to either of you did they?"

"No, but is Eric's dad okay?"

"He's been taken to the medbay one of the refugees who's a certified doctor is looking after him so he's going to be ok."

Within the Hope's cockpit Eric felt a great amount of relief over him upon hearing this. His worst fears of losing one of the people he was fighting to protect. But even with that being the case he could never forgive Garcia or the Eurasians for what they have done.

If the base was truly under attack then Eric had no intention of saving any of those stationed at the base. They made their own bed so now they could lay in it.

"Thank goodness. Anyways I'm loading the Strike onto the catapult, please load it with one of the packs.'

"On it. We're loading you with the sword pack."

Right on que the Strike was soon mounted with the antiship sword, beam boomerang, and rocket propelled ancher. No sooner than it was finished that the Strike launched.

Meanwhile Eric mounted the catapult in the Archangel's opposite leg. "Eric I'm sorry about your dad but like I told Kira. He's going to be alright."

"Thanks for letting me know Miriallia. It's a load off my shoulders, though I really hate this base's Commander now."

"That's understandable, I don't think there's anything on this ship that does like him."

"Cut the chatter." Natarle's voice cut in before addressing Eric. "You need to hurry up and launch. We're in a critical situation."

Eric exhaled and focused his gaze on the front monitor whilst watching the ship's hatch open. As soon as the way was completely clear Eric launch without word.

"Eric you and Kira need to stay close to the ship we don't need where the enemy is." Miriallia informed.

"Understood."

Up ahead Eric saw numerous mobile armors launch and head in the direction the Archangel going in. If that along with the directional sound of the tremors were of any indication than Zaft was just ahead. Speaking of the tremors however more here heard but from another direction whilst the Movius Zero left the Archangel.

"I guess Zaft decided to use more than one entrance to get in." Mu La Flaga said over the radio. "At the very least it'll keep the Eurasians off our backs."

On the bridge of the Archangel Ramius shrugged while keeping her eyes firmly on what was ahead of the ship waiting for the first visual sign of battle. "We can't get complacent. Considering what Garcia tried to do I doubt he intends to let us leave without some resistance."

"Not much he can really do. If Zaft is attacking us then its a pretty safe bet to assume they're using the stolen prototypes from Heliopolis."

Ramius tensed up at the mere mention of that. While it was more or less a given what the scenario would be having knowledge of it beforehand didn't really do much to provide any real sense of comfort or relief.

The crew might have known what they were in for but that wouldn't make this an easy fight considering the unprecedented prowess all four G weapons possessed individually.

Even though she and no else had seen anything confirming it she already knew any fighting going on was one sidedly in Zaft's favor. Mobile armors could barely go against GINN's, in the face of the G weapons they'd be essentially obsolete, the most they'd be able to do is stall Zaft for a short time. Ramius just hoped that she'd be able to use their unintended distraction in order to slip out of the base before Zaft and Garcia tried anything.

After the Archangel got outside it was likely a given the crew would have to face the two Zaft vessels outside but honestly at this point the unofficial captain would take any convenience she get at this point.

Unfortunately the possibility of at least getting outside unhindered was grinded to a halt by two factors. The first was the Blitz currently shooting mobile armors at the moment but it would only last another instant before the pilot noticed the Archangel along with the Strike and Hope, the second was that the hatch to the port was closed which was likely Garcia's doing likely either to try and keep anymore Zaft units out or the Archangel from leaving, if Ramias had to guess between the two she'd have her money on the latter considering his original ambition though in actuality it was likely both.

Considering the tremors in the other direction it was safe to assume that the former of the goals failed and the other G weapons had simply used another port to get in and Ramius intended to make sure the latter failed just as miserably.

"Prepare to fire the Lohengrins. We'll force our way out."

"Are you sure? We'll be causing further damage to this base." One of the crew members pointed out.

"After everything they done it really doesn't matter, besides this base isn't going to last much longer with fighting taking place inside."

The hatches in the bottom of both legs open to reveal the Lohengrin cannons.

"Lohengrins fire!" Natarle yelled out and right on que two crimson colored blast soared from the ship taking out a few mobile armors in the process though missing the Blitz which was much more prepared before destroying the hatch jeeping to port entrance closed completely.

"Alright advance steadily towards the exit." Ramius ordered.

XXXXX

at another port of the base the Buster had hung at the entrance using both Guns to shoot down numerous mobile armor that tried to stall it along with the Duel and CGUE.

"So where's Nicol and the legged ship?" Dearka inquired.

"They're likely either further inside or at another port." Yzak said heading further inside shooting a couple mobile armors along the way. "These guys really need to learn to stay out of the way."

"Agreed. You'd think they'd realize they're way out of their league."

Meanwhile the CGUE flew up ahead almost ignoring the mobile armors completely.

"Hey where do think your going?" Demanded Yzak.

"These small fries are a waste of time. I'm going after the legged ship." Bernard answered whilst continuing further inside the base, much to the chagrin of the two Zaft reds.

Yzak growled in annoyance before following "Not ahead of us you're not."

Sighing within the Buster cockpit. "Well I definitely don't want to miss out on the action." With that the Buster gave chase after the other two unit though not without making sure to shoot the few mobile armor within the port. "We don't need any third wheels."

XXXXX

"Dammit why can't we deal with four measly units?!" Garcia demanded as he watched all of the mobile armor pilots stationed at Artemis being shot down and slaughtered.

"These units have the same design as the ones that were onboard the Atlantic Federation's new warship. Our pilots' weapons can't even put a scratch on their armor!"

"What? There's no way!" Garia all but yelled in denial. Back when he initially tried to have the two mobile suits on the ship studied he already developed high expectations when it came to their capabilities especially after seeing some of the combat footage but for them to be able to render weapons within the EA's current arsenal completely obsolete like this was something he could never have anticipated.

"At this rate the entire base will be destroyed!"

Another shock. "You mean to honestly tell me that we're about to lose the entire base!?"

"To much fighting is taking place inside of it."

"Then we need to abandon it. To the escape pods now. Tell our mobile armor pilot to continue engaging Zaft and start engaging the Atlantic Federation too."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, we need to make sure both are distracted long enough for us to slip out."

"Isn't the crew on the new warship our ally?"

"Idiot! You really think they'll forgive what we've done or did you forget that we had them all at gunpoint and shot the father of one of the mobile suit pilots? Our only option is to escape now while we still have the chance!"

With that Garcia headed for the exit of the command center before turning around to address everyone else when he noticed their hesitation. Its either come with me or die here which would you prefer?"

That did the trick. The personal finally started scrambling out of the command center. "Good choice I think it practically applies to any situation that the best course of action is to live to fight another day."

Though he might have worded his goal in a manner that made it sound noble but in reality he had no intention of taking to any type of battlefield which was why he was more than content when he was at the Artemis base all the way up until this point, he was able to simply utilize the umbrella shield and Zaft would be forced to leave, it had become so routine that he hadn't even considered them much of a priority. In fact, he was more concerned with increasing his personal renown within the Eurasion Federation which was the other half of why he had tried to keep the Archangel from leaving and take advantage of the two Coordinator pilots' abilities aside from the obvious power play against the Atlantic Federation.

Looking back on it now the Commander could only wonder what went wrong. How in the world did Zaft get past the umbrella shield now of all times when they've never managed to in the past? Whatever the reason Garcia had no intention of dying here.

'Those damn brats and the rest of those wretched Coordinators will pay dearly for this.'

XXXXX

"Why you you just leave and let us live in peace?!" Kira exclaimed as he closed the distance between himself and the Blitz trying to rend the mobile suit in half with his antiship sword but it seemed the Zaft pilot had enough common sense to stay out of Kira's range.

Eric decided to utilize his beam rifle being careful not to risk shooting the Strike by accident or use up all his power to which the Blitz would either avoid the beams or block them with its shield whilst returning fire and shooting at the Strike when it was able.

Overall both Eric and Kira were managing to keep the Blitz on the defensive which was good in and of itself since it meant that it wouldn't be able to do much to stop the Archangel from reaching the outside of the base but it would definitely be preferable if they could take out the Blitz or at the very least force it to retreat.

While they may have held the advantage at the moment with the Blitz being the enemy they were being confronted with at the moment that dynamic would be gone the moment one of the other stolen Gundams showed up and that was assuming it wasn't all three of them.

'If I can just manage to disable one of the Blitz's limbs at least it would be left with no choice but to retreat and let us get out of this place already.'

The Blitz sent its piercer lock at the Strike to which Kira responded by letting loose his rocket propelled anchor claw.

Both armaments collided into one another with neither destroying the other. Eric decided to utilize the opportunity to try using his twin railguns sending two crimson colored beams at the Blitz which pulled back and climb to avoid them.

Before the Blitz could make any attempt at retaliation Kira closed in and swung his antiship sword overhead forcing the Blitz to block the attack with its shield.

The Blitz immediately fell back and was about to return fire before suddenly turning around and retreating.

Both pilot of the Strike and Hope were momentarily baffled before they heard Ramius over the radio. "Strike, Hope hurry and head to the port themis base is about collapse."

Both pilot looked around and see Rmaius was telling the truth. Numerous support beams and pieces of debris were breaking off and floating in the air. The Artemis base was going to fall apart completely before much longer.

The Archangel increased its speed to the maximum whilst Kira and Eric landing on the deck.

Within the next minute the ship had reached the outside whilst the Artemis base was engulfed in an inferno.

"Set a course for the lunar base now!" Ramius ordered. "And have both the Strike and Hope return to the ship."

"The Blitz is still out there!" Sai pointed out.

"Use the Igelstellung to keep at bay and hell darts to keep on the defensive long enough for us to escape as soon as Yamato and Raglan have docked."

Miriallia immediately established a radio link with both mobile suits. "Kira, Eric we need you to hurry and return to the Archangel so we can leave."

"The Blitz is still out here!" Kira replied whilst throwing his beam boomerang at the mobile suit in question merely for it to block the weapon with its shield.

"Ramius already has it covered the Blitz won't be able to follow us after we leave."

Kira stared at the Blitz as it tried to fire off its rifle before being beat to the punch when Eric used his railguns to force it to pull back even further.

"Kira let's hurry and get back Mu La Flaga is already back onboard, the faster we're out of here the better." Eric said before heading back to the ship with a somewhat reluctant Kira following.

Blitz attempted to give chase but was immediately forced to pulled back when it found itself under fire from the Archangel's Igelstellungs. "Ready to fire heel darts!" Ramius ordered before the Blitz decided to retreat.

"I think the Blitz is heading back to its ship." Sai commented.

"In that case belay my previous order. We'll be heading for the lunar base now. Maximise thrusters output, we need to gain as much headway as we can before the enemy can give chase."

XXXXX

"God dammit will these fucking mobile armors just get of the way already!?" Bernard growled out in rage as he carved throughout one of the said units before following up with his shield vulcan to shoot down another.

"I've gotta hand to these Natural they know how to be tenacious even when they're in a hopeless situation." Dreaka commented whilst combining both of his weapons into their scattershot form and taking four mobile armors in one blast.

Meanwhile Yzak was shooting down EA units in rapid succession with his beam rifle "Maybe but we really can't waste too much time. Every second we spend trying to fight these guys off is a second the legged ship could be using to get away."

In spite of whatever tension might have existed between the three pilots (mainly because of Bernard) they all were in agreement that they needed to finish dealing with the Eursains in the shortest timespan possible. Problem was the EA pilots were numerous, not that it made them any real threat it just made the task take longer than any of the Zaft pilots personally cared for.

Another factor was what Dearka had pointed out. The Eurasians were being rather tenacious practically to the point of being suicidal. While under normal circumstances none of the three pilots would let them retreat even if they actually tried that scenario would have been quite preferable here since it would mean they'd be able to go after they're actually target that much quicker but in spite of the obvious outcome that would be at the end of this skirmish the EA pilots refused to back down.

A break in the scenery finally came when the Yzak and Dearka found themselves being hailed by the Blitz.

"Have you managed to shoot damn the legged ship?" Yzak inquired.

"No they managed to get away."

"You've gotta be kidding me. They managed to slip by us again!?"

"Well in that case let's make sure these mobile armors pay the price with their lives."

Bernard smirked at this. "With pleasure, the guys wanted to keep me from my target then I'll happily see to it that not a single one of them leave here alive."

"Let's make sure not to leave the lifeboats either." Yzak said taking off in the direction of those who had tried to escape putting away his beam rifle and igniting his beam saber upon taking it out.

Nicol grew anxious seeing this. "Wait I don't think there's any need to go that far."

"Shut up. After what these bastards did dying is the very least they can do. It doesn't matter if they're trying to fight or not at this point."

Splitting up his guns and reconfigured them into their sniper rifle form whilst utilizing his missile silos to clear the last of the mobile armors before taking aim at the lifeboats. "If you don't want to take part then head back to the Gamow."

Nicol sighed as a watch Dearka fire at one of the lifeboats whilst Bernard flew toward them with his heavy sword at the ready.

XXXXX

"This can't be happening!" Garcia exclaimed in shock as he watched one of the mobile suits utilized its beam saber to slash through one of the lifeboats destroying it outright.

Once more things weren't going according to plan at all. Back when the Commander told all the personnel present within the command center to evacuate and issue an order to the mobile armors to keep engaging the enemy as well as the legged ship the end goal was to keep everyone distracted long enough for the lifeboats to escape from the base.

Afterwards it was supposed to be a simple scenario of the mobile armor pilots being sacrificed than the Atlantic Federation's new warship and Zaft fighting it out until one side was destroyed and afterwards the winning side would leave.

So then why was Zaft turning their weapons against soldiers who could longer fight, weren't they satisfied with shooting down the Atlantic Federation's new warship?

The Commander began sweating bullets once he witnessed one of the other Zaft mobile suits split up its weapons and recombined them switching the places one which one was in the front and back before firing from an unbelievable range and shot one of the other lifeboats leaving only the lifeboat with Garcia in it left.

"Open a channel to the Zaft forces now!" He yelled out. The others wasted no time in carrying out the orders in hopes that'd they'd come out of this alive even if it was as mere prisoners of the enemy.

"Attention all Zaft forces. We longer have the means to continue fighting nor the intent. Henceforth we surrender."

The CGUE flew right up to the lifeboat with a heavybalde in hand but much to the Commander's relief it didn't immediately cut through the lifeboat and destroy it. Unfortunately any hope of living was shattered and replaced by dread when the pilot of the CGUE replied.

"Seeing as all your fucking mobile armor pilots managed to hold us all up long enough for the legged ship and person I wanted dead to get away I don't think any of us can simply let you leave here alive anymore."

Garcia's eyes widened upon hearing this. The Atlantic Federation's new warship got away because of him? The pilot seriously meant to inform him that in trying to ensure his escape all he succeeded in doing was digging his own grave.

Looking back Garcia could still only ask himself what went wrong but thinking about it now he was finally realizing his list of mistakes started when he let the Archangel dock at the Artemis base but how could he have known known it would lead to this? Up until this point he never had to worry about Zaft.

"I could kill you quickly but I think you should die a bit more slowly."

"There's hardly anything you could do to torcher us at this point."

"Oh I think I can. If I cut off the antenna at the top of the lifeboat you'll not only lose any means of communication with anyone but your lifeboat won't emit any signal for anyone to find you."

Garica and everyone onboard felt themselves grow cold with absolutely fear. "Wait please don't-" the Commander's pleas were cut off when the lifeboat was suddenly jolted violently.

"W-we lost communication." One of the personnel announced.

Garcia could only stare out the window watching as the CGUE and other two mobile suits began heading back to their ships leaving the Eurasians to die alone in space.

* * *

 **Alright that's it for this ch. Sorry for the long wait. Different factors have been getting in the way such as work amongst other things.**

 **Anyway let me know your thoughts.**


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